6:56PM
Madrasas breed terror
Simon Kitchen
After years of learned and not-so-learned comments explaining that the Taliban and Sunni chauvinism in Pakistan - not to mention the 9/11 attacks - were linked to thousands of madrasas that had sprung up in Pakistan, a couple of social scientists at Harvard have put the received wisdom to the test and found that only a small proportion of Pakistani children receive a full-time education in religious schools. They discovered that a far more important trend in education in Pakistan - as in many developing countries - has been the rise of private schools.
The findings of the report, "Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan: A look at the Data", are a sobering comment on the covering of Islam that has passed for analysis and even policymaking in the US over the past four years.
Mind you, let's not ignore the fact that some people in Pakistan have developed some very violent attitudes not only towards western policies towards Islam, but also towards their Shia countrymen.
The findings of the report, "Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan: A look at the Data", are a sobering comment on the covering of Islam that has passed for analysis and even policymaking in the US over the past four years.
Mind you, let's not ignore the fact that some people in Pakistan have developed some very violent attitudes not only towards western policies towards Islam, but also towards their Shia countrymen.
Reader Comments (4)
I read a French analysis that said a handful of Pashtoon madrasas were set up by the ISI to prepare an irregular Pakistani-backed force to secure neighboring Afganistan from the grasp of a popular Tajik warlord and resistance fighter (Rabbani?) who wasn't considered a sufficiently reliable ally. They French geostratigist even published a book on it. But I'm just casual dumbass who picks up Le Monde once in a while and reads an article.
BTW and slightly OT: look who is behind the Kirghizstan revolution: A pan-national alliance of veteran Communists, Islamic notables, tribal chieftains and young Muslim militants.
Those are some of my favorite people!
But how long until the Bush administration takes the credit?
Heh, Bush doesn't like it :) Some looters are spending time at a little after-hours looting in the commerical district but as the Akayev family owned everything, I guess that's to be expected.
reports of looting are exaggerated. is it possible that there were that many vases in the whole country?