An education in breeding terror

Ejazul Haq was invited in May to the launch of a book called Christian Terrorism and The Muslim World authored by a pro-Taliban cleric. Carried away by the atmospherics of the occasion, Ejazul Haq said anyone who did not believe in jehad was neither a Muslim nor a Pakistani. He spoke of the atrocities being committed on Muslims all over the world and offered himself as a prospective suicide bomber.
Now Ejazul Haq is no mere mortal. He is the Minister of Religious Affairs in Gen Musharraf’s Government. His other claim to fame is that he is Gen Zia-ul Haq’s son. Almost immediately, perceptive and sensitive Pakistanis, horrified at this statement, ridiculed the Minister. Ejaz Haider of the Friday Times and the Daily Times, in a scathing critique, called ‘The Athenian Mules’ tried to reassure the rest of the world that the Minister was given to vain, glorious outbursts and he was not about to strap himself with plastic explosives and set forth on some jehadi mission.
But worries remain. After all, Ejazul Haq represents the Government. Therefore, was he speaking with the approval of the General, reflecting the views of some of his colleagues in the Cabinet, or those of the ruling classes to which he belongs? There are similar elements within the Pak Army and Musharraf himself has admitted that some members of the Armed Forces were involved in the attempts to assassinate him.
There has been universal concern that radical Islam on the rise for the last 25 years and more was taking control of Pakistan. Even Musharraf himself spoke of new internal threats facing Pakistan in his famous January 12, 2002 speech.
Over time madrassas of Pakistan became the symbols of Islamisation and were recruiting grounds and universities for the jehadi foot soldiers for the Afghan and the Kashmir theatre with their own sectarian beliefs and affiliations to different schools of Islamic thought. No one really knows how many madrassas there are and where and exactly what is taught in all of them. Pakistan’s Minister of Religious Affairs told the Brussels-based International Crisis Group in 2002 that the number was 10,000. The total number of students at these madrassas is estimated to be more than 1.5 million. Of course not all madrassas teach jehad.
According to Pakistan’s Friday Times, the Liberal Forum Pakistan had carried out research on the kinds of subjects taught at some of the madrassas. The Forum found that books published by the Lashkar-e-Taiba and distributed to institutions and madrassas run by the Lashkar’s ideological master the Jamaat-ud Dawa give the message that, “Muslims alone have the right to rule the world and are allowed to kill infidels that stand in the way of Islam.” Seven-year old students are taught that infidels are cowards who run away in fear and terror when a holy warrior attacks them; those that kill Hindus are super-heroes; children are taught to beat non-Muslims mercilessly. All second graders are advised that every student should become a holy warrior. Games are about guerrillas and infidels; poems are about the glory of waging jehad and fictitious letters from jehadis are circulated among children. These books are given free of charge to the students. This is where the country’s impoverished mostly send their children, hoping more for food and shelter rather than education.
But where do the country’s middle class send their children and what do they learn? It is usually assumed that if the madrassas were taken care of the problem would eventually be solved. This is not so. Only one-third of the children go to madrassas for education. The rest go to mainstream schools where the curriculum is fixed by the Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education. This wing formalises the national curriculum and thus has total monopoly. It functions rather like a Mind Control Brigade.
It is well known that Islamisation of schools began in real earnest during Zia-ul Haq’s time but rewriting of history began in 1971 with an Islamic fervour attached to it even then. Yvette Claire Rosser in her monograph Islamisation of Pakistani Social Studies Textbooks brought out by the Observer Research Foundation refers to what Pervez Hoodbhoy and A.H. Nayyar had said in their article ‘Rewriting the History of Pakistan’ way back in 1985. Referring to Zia’s efforts to Islamise education, they feared that “the full impact of which will probably be felt by the turn of the century, when the present generation of school children attains maturity.”
The situation today is that when it was decided in March 2004, that certain portions of a textbook in Biology for Classs XI had to be expunged because it was inappropriate for a Biology textbook to suggest that jehad was obligatory for all Muslims, the MMA in Parliament walked out in protest.
The Sustainable Development Policy Institute of Islamabad (SDP) had carried out a detailed study in 2002-2003 on what was being taught in Pakistan’s schools. They called their report The Subtle Subversion and their findings are alarming. Gen Musharraf had himself referred to this malaise in his August 14 2002 speech when he spoke of “misconceived views of Islam and fanatical acts of terrorism.” Apart from distortion of history, which is always a matter of debate, the more worrying aspect of the curriculum worked out by the Curriculum Wing is that right from kindergarten through to Class V children are taught to become life-sacrificing mujahids, and told simple stories eulogising jehad.
Linked to the Ideology of Pakistan Studies is an essential component of hate-hate against India and Hindus. Toddlers in Classes I to V, were as late as March 2002, being taught that ‘Hindu has always been the enemy of Islam’, ‘India’s evil designs against Pakistan’, ‘the religion of Hindus did not teach them good things’, ‘ignoble Hindu mentality’. The common theme throughout for students of all ages is jehad and shahadat. Space constraints prevent a fuller account but the scope of the study is vast and thorough and the examples cited are innumerable and frightening.
The SDPI report referring to the problems identified by Musharraf “have in large part been the result of children being educated into ways of thinking that makes them susceptible to a violent and exclusionary worldview open to sectarianism and religious intolerance.” As Dr. Rehman says “If Pakistan is to become a moderate country living in peace with its neighbours its children cannot be brought up on hate material” (The News, April 1004).
The problem is not just the madrassas but of mainstream schools in Pakistan. Most of the graduates from the madrassas usually end up in the caves of Tora Bora or somewhere equally inhospitable. Those from the mainstream schools go to mainstream colleges and end up with main line jobs at home or in foreign lands. And if we assume that 3 million school children are added to Pakistan’s school going population every year there will be 60 million children who will have imbibed some of these teachings in another 20 years.
Quite a few of them will carry their anger and indoctrination into adulthood. Imagine if all the children in the world, including those in India, were all fed on a diet of hate and we all taught our children to hate their neighbours. There would be a thousand holocausts now. And if no one listens to the voice of reason in Pakistan, if things do not begin to mend soon there will be no menders left. This is the core issue.
(The writer was Secretary, RA&W before retiring last year)Ejazul Haq was invited in May to the launch of a book called Christian Terrorism and The Muslim World authored by a pro-Taliban cleric. Carried away by the atmospherics of the occasion, Ejazul Haq said anyone who did not believe in jehad was neither a Muslim nor a Pakistani. He spoke of the atrocities being committed on Muslims all over the world and offered himself as a prospective suicide bomber.
Now Ejazul Haq is no mere mortal. He is the Minister of Religious Affairs in Gen Musharraf’s Government. His other claim to fame is that he is Gen Zia-ul Haq’s son. Almost immediately, perceptive and sensitive Pakistanis, horrified at this statement, ridiculed the Minister. Ejaz Haider of the Friday Times and the Daily Times, in a scathing critique, called ‘The Athenian Mules’ tried to reassure the rest of the world that the Minister was given to vain, glorious outbursts and he was not about to strap himself with plastic explosives and set forth on some jehadi mission.
But worries remain. After all, Ejazul Haq represents the Government. Therefore, was he speaking with the approval of the General, reflecting the views of some of his colleagues in the Cabinet, or those of the ruling classes to which he belongs? There are similar elements within the Pak Army and Musharraf himself has admitted that some members of the Armed Forces were involved in the attempts to assassinate him.
There has been universal concern that radical Islam on the rise for the last 25 years and more was taking control of Pakistan. Even Musharraf himself spoke of new internal threats facing Pakistan in his famous January 12, 2002 speech.
Over time madrassas of Pakistan became the symbols of Islamisation and were recruiting grounds and universities for the jehadi foot soldiers for the Afghan and the Kashmir theatre with their own sectarian beliefs and affiliations to different schools of Islamic thought. No one really knows how many madrassas there are and where and exactly what is taught in all of them. Pakistan’s Minister of Religious Affairs told the Brussels-based International Crisis Group in 2002 that the number was 10,000. The total number of students at these madrassas is estimated to be more than 1.5 million. Of course not all madrassas teach jehad.
According to Pakistan’s Friday Times, the Liberal Forum Pakistan had carried out research on the kinds of subjects taught at some of the madrassas. The Forum found that books published by the Lashkar-e-Taiba and distributed to institutions and madrassas run by the Lashkar’s ideological master the Jamaat-ud Dawa give the message that, “Muslims alone have the right to rule the world and are allowed to kill infidels that stand in the way of Islam.” Seven-year old students are taught that infidels are cowards who run away in fear and terror when a holy warrior attacks them; those that kill Hindus are super-heroes; children are taught to beat non-Muslims mercilessly. All second graders are advised that every student should become a holy warrior. Games are about guerrillas and infidels; poems are about the glory of waging jehad and fictitious letters from jehadis are circulated among children. These books are given free of charge to the students. This is where the country’s impoverished mostly send their children, hoping more for food and shelter rather than education.
But where do the country’s middle class send their children and what do they learn? It is usually assumed that if the madrassas were taken care of the problem would eventually be solved. This is not so. Only one-third of the children go to madrassas for education. The rest go to mainstream schools where the curriculum is fixed by the Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education. This wing formalises the national curriculum and thus has total monopoly. It functions rather like a Mind Control Brigade.
It is well known that Islamisation of schools began in real earnest during Zia-ul Haq’s time but rewriting of history began in 1971 with an Islamic fervour attached to it even then. Yvette Claire Rosser in her monograph Islamisation of Pakistani Social Studies Textbooks brought out by the Observer Research Foundation refers to what Pervez Hoodbhoy and A.H. Nayyar had said in their article ‘Rewriting the History of Pakistan’ way back in 1985. Referring to Zia’s efforts to Islamise education, they feared that “the full impact of which will probably be felt by the turn of the century, when the present generation of school children attains maturity.”
The situation today is that when it was decided in March 2004, that certain portions of a textbook in Biology for Classs XI had to be expunged because it was inappropriate for a Biology textbook to suggest that jehad was obligatory for all Muslims, the MMA in Parliament walked out in protest.
The Sustainable Development Policy Institute of Islamabad (SDP) had carried out a detailed study in 2002-2003 on what was being taught in Pakistan’s schools. They called their report The Subtle Subversion and their findings are alarming. Gen Musharraf had himself referred to this malaise in his August 14 2002 speech when he spoke of “misconceived views of Islam and fanatical acts of terrorism.” Apart from distortion of history, which is always a matter of debate, the more worrying aspect of the curriculum worked out by the Curriculum Wing is that right from kindergarten through to Class V children are taught to become life-sacrificing mujahids, and told simple stories eulogising jehad.
Linked to the Ideology of Pakistan Studies is an essential component of hate-hate against India and Hindus. Toddlers in Classes I to V, were as late as March 2002, being taught that ‘Hindu has always been the enemy of Islam’, ‘India’s evil designs against Pakistan’, ‘the religion of Hindus did not teach them good things’, ‘ignoble Hindu mentality’. The common theme throughout for students of all ages is jehad and shahadat. Space constraints prevent a fuller account but the scope of the study is vast and thorough and the examples cited are innumerable and frightening.
The SDPI report referring to the problems identified by Musharraf “have in large part been the result of children being educated into ways of thinking that makes them susceptible to a violent and exclusionary worldview open to sectarianism and religious intolerance.” As Dr. Rehman says “If Pakistan is to become a moderate country living in peace with its neighbours its children cannot be brought up on hate material” (The News, April 1004).
The problem is not just the madrassas but of mainstream schools in Pakistan. Most of the graduates from the madrassas usually end up in the caves of Tora Bora or somewhere equally inhospitable. Those from the mainstream schools go to mainstream colleges and end up with main line jobs at home or in foreign lands. And if we assume that 3 million school children are added to Pakistan’s school going population every year there will be 60 million children who will have imbibed some of these teachings in another 20 years.
Quite a few of them will carry their anger and indoctrination into adulthood. Imagine if all the children in the world, including those in India, were all fed on a diet of hate and we all taught our children to hate their neighbours. There would be a thousand holocausts now. And if no one listens to the voice of reason in Pakistan, if things do not begin to mend soon there will be no menders left. This is the core issue.
(The writer was Secretary, RA&W before retiring last year)

Source : Hindustan Times 10th July 2004