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Jihad – The Misperceptions World > Asia: South & Central
from the August 18, 2003 edition

Pakistan groups still rally for jihad

Despite a government ban, militant organizations marked last week`s independence day with call to arms.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0818/p06s01-wosc.html

By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

LAHORE, PAKISTAN – It`s about 100 degrees outside, under a blazing Punjabi sky, but Amr Hamza seems to be on a roll.
In a rally to celebrate Pakistan`s independence day last week, Mr. Hamza is calling on the faithful - about 10,000 of them, mostly members of the religious extremist party Jamaat-ud Dawa, or Society of the Call - to defend Islam against its enemies.

The word he uses to describe this defense is ``jihad,`` a term with similar historical baggage as ``crusade.`` Hamza means it as a call to arms, in this case against Indian forces that control the Muslim-majority province of Kashmir.

``Are you ready to crush the Hindus between your teeth?`` he shouts, and the entire crowd rises to its feet and says ``Hanh,`` the Urdu word for yes. ``Are you ready to crush the Americans between your teeth?`` he asks. ``Hanh.``

Rallies such as this one, in towns and villages across Pakistan, show that jihadist parties such as Jamaat are alive and thriving, more than a year after they were banned by the government of President Pervez Musharraf.

Some Pakistanis here say that rallies for Jamaat - which once called itself Lashkar-i Tayyaba, and which both India and the US listed as a terrorist group - are merely an expression of support of their religion and their fellow Muslims in Kashmir. But for Pakistanis who support the US-led war on terrorism, and for Washington, it`s a troubling sign that Pakistan remains a breeding ground for extremist groups and for an ideology of cultural war shared by Al Qaeda.

``In high-profile cases, the Musharraf government has arrested a few people, but it`s far more important to roll up the network of support for these jihadist parties,`` says Samina Ahmed, project director for the International Crisis Group, a think tank in Islamabad. ``But the network will remain in place until the government takes sustained action.``

Like many observers here in Pakistan, Ms. Ahmed argues that Pakistan`s military continues to maintain its long alliance with religious parties, who share a common goal: the so-called ``liberation of Kashmir.`` This alliance was put on hiatus after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, she adds, when Pakistan broke its alliance with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, and broke relations with religious parties at home.

But in the leadup to the national parliamentary elections last October, Pakistan`s military, under commander-in-chief Musharraf, began open negotiations with the religious parties. The military released from jail many of the extremist leaders - including Jamaat`s Hafiz Saeed and Jaish-i Mohammad`s Maulana Azhar - whom it had jailed on charges of terrorism.

US embassy and Indian officials say that cross-border terror attacks continue, but they note that militant groups no longer take credit for the attacks.

``The mullahs and the military both believe that Pakistan has a rightful claim over Kashmir, and both believe in the jihad, the fight for Kashmir,`` says Ahmed. ``But it is certainly in the interests of Pakistan to contain these groups, both because of its international reputation, and also because more Pakistanis are being killed in these attacks than anyone else.``

While 90 percent of the votes went to mainstream parties in national elections last October, a coalition of religious par- ties made gains that allowed them to control two key provinces along the Afghan border, Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan.

While Western diplomats here publicly say Pakistan hasn`t changed its policy toward extremist groups, many privately worry that these two provincial governments may be tacitly supporting the resurgent Taliban.

Such worries do seem warranted. The six-party coalition that now runs the two border states have publicly stated their opposition to the US war in Afghanistan, and their desire to impose Taliban-style social rules at home. Intelligence experts also say that some of these parties maintain close ties with militant groups fighting in Kashmir.

The popular religious party Jamaat-i Islami, for instance, has long funded Al Badr and Hizbul Mujahideen, which have both gone underground in the Pakistani portion of Kashmir. And the party of Jamiat-i Ulema-i Islam long had ties with the Taliban, most of whose leaders attended Jamiat seminaries in Pakistan.

Government officials, however, say that the government`s ties with extremist groups ended after Sept. 11, and there is no going back to the old policy.

``The policy of the government is clear,`` says Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, spokesman for President Musharraf. ``There is no room for extremism in Pakistan, and we are absolutely sincere in getting it eliminated on our territory.``

For the Jamaat-ud Dawa, which runs a network of social services, including 16 Islamic institutions, 135 secondary schools, five madrassahs, a college for science, and a $300,000-plus medical mission that includes mobile clinics, an ambulance service, and blood banks. Jamaat leaders reject the label of terrorism, but they say their mission under the Lashkar-i Tayyaba remains the same: preaching Islam at home, and fighting the enemies of Islam abroad (jihad).

``Jihad is not terrorism,`` says Qazi Kashif, editor of Jamaat-ud Dawa`s newspaper. ``It is not against the civilians, it is against the oppression, against the occupying forces in Afghanistan, in Kashmir, in Iraq, in Chechnya, in Palestine, in the Philippines. Our first priority is our nearby regime in Kashmir, against the Indian Army.``

Unlike Osama bin Laden, who signed a document arguing that killing civilians was allowable if those civilians paid taxes to enemies, Mr. Kashif says the Koran strictly forbids killing civilians. ``If you are against the civilians, that is not jihad. What happened [at the] World Trade Center, with the innocent women and children, we disagree with that.``

But another Jamaat member, Tahir Rabbani, sees the present war in much larger terms. The duty of jihad, he says, will eventually demand a final battle between Islam and the West.

``Our task is to end oppression, and until Islam is established over the entire world, the jihad will be continued forever,`` he says. ``There can be no peace without jihad.``

Build Bridges, Not Bombs World > Asia: South & Central
from the August 18, 2003 edition

Pakistan groups still rally for jihad

Despite a government ban, militant organizations marked last week`s independence day with call to arms.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0818/p06s01-wosc.html

By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

LAHORE, PAKISTAN – It`s about 100 degrees outside, under a blazing Punjabi sky, but Amr Hamza seems to be on a roll.
In a rally to celebrate Pakistan`s independence day last week, Mr. Hamza is calling on the faithful - about 10,000 of them, mostly members of the religious extremist party Jamaat-ud Dawa, or Society of the Call - to defend Islam against its enemies.

The word he uses to describe this defense is ``jihad,`` a term with similar historical baggage as ``crusade.`` Hamza means it as a call to arms, in this case against Indian forces that control the Muslim-majority province of Kashmir.

``Are you ready to crush the Hindus between your teeth?`` he shouts, and the entire crowd rises to its feet and says ``Hanh,`` the Urdu word for yes. ``Are you ready to crush the Americans between your teeth?`` he asks. ``Hanh.``

Rallies such as this one, in towns and villages across Pakistan, show that jihadist parties such as Jamaat are alive and thriving, more than a year after they were banned by the government of President Pervez Musharraf.

Some Pakistanis here say that rallies for Jamaat - which once called itself Lashkar-i Tayyaba, and which both India and the US listed as a terrorist group - are merely an expression of support of their religion and their fellow Muslims in Kashmir. But for Pakistanis who support the US-led war on terrorism, and for Washington, it`s a troubling sign that Pakistan remains a breeding ground for extremist groups and for an ideology of cultural war shared by Al Qaeda.

``In high-profile cases, the Musharraf government has arrested a few people, but it`s far more important to roll up the network of support for these jihadist parties,`` says Samina Ahmed, project director for the International Crisis Group, a think tank in Islamabad. ``But the network will remain in place until the government takes sustained action.``

Like many observers here in Pakistan, Ms. Ahmed argues that Pakistan`s military continues to maintain its long alliance with religious parties, who share a common goal: the so-called ``liberation of Kashmir.`` This alliance was put on hiatus after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, she adds, when Pakistan broke its alliance with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, and broke relations with religious parties at home.

But in the leadup to the national parliamentary elections last October, Pakistan`s military, under commander-in-chief Musharraf, began open negotiations with the religious parties. The military released from jail many of the extremist leaders - including Jamaat`s Hafiz Saeed and Jaish-i Mohammad`s Maulana Azhar - whom it had jailed on charges of terrorism.

US embassy and Indian officials say that cross-border terror attacks continue, but they note that militant groups no longer take credit for the attacks.

``The mullahs and the military both believe that Pakistan has a rightful claim over Kashmir, and both believe in the jihad, the fight for Kashmir,`` says Ahmed. ``But it is certainly in the interests of Pakistan to contain these groups, both because of its international reputation, and also because more Pakistanis are being killed in these attacks than anyone else.``

While 90 percent of the votes went to mainstream parties in national elections last October, a coalition of religious par- ties made gains that allowed them to control two key provinces along the Afghan border, Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan.

While Western diplomats here publicly say Pakistan hasn`t changed its policy toward extremist groups, many privately worry that these two provincial governments may be tacitly supporting the resurgent Taliban.

Such worries do seem warranted. The six-party coalition that now runs the two border states have publicly stated their opposition to the US war in Afghanistan, and their desire to impose Taliban-style social rules at home. Intelligence experts also say that some of these parties maintain close ties with militant groups fighting in Kashmir.

The popular religious party Jamaat-i Islami, for instance, has long funded Al Badr and Hizbul Mujahideen, which have both gone underground in the Pakistani portion of Kashmir. And the party of Jamiat-i Ulema-i Islam long had ties with the Taliban, most of whose leaders attended Jamiat seminaries in Pakistan.

Government officials, however, say that the government`s ties with extremist groups ended after Sept. 11, and there is no going back to the old policy.

``The policy of the government is clear,`` says Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, spokesman for President Musharraf. ``There is no room for extremism in Pakistan, and we are absolutely sincere in getting it eliminated on our territory.``

For the Jamaat-ud Dawa, which runs a network of social services, including 16 Islamic institutions, 135 secondary schools, five madrassahs, a college for science, and a $300,000-plus medical mission that includes mobile clinics, an ambulance service, and blood banks. Jamaat leaders reject the label of terrorism, but they say their mission under the Lashkar-i Tayyaba remains the same: preaching Islam at home, and fighting the enemies of Islam abroad (jihad).

``Jihad is not terrorism,`` says Qazi Kashif, editor of Jamaat-ud Dawa`s newspaper. ``It is not against the civilians, it is against the oppression, against the occupying forces in Afghanistan, in Kashmir, in Iraq, in Chechnya, in Palestine, in the Philippines. Our first priority is our nearby regime in Kashmir, against the Indian Army.``

Unlike Osama bin Laden, who signed a document arguing that killing civilians was allowable if those civilians paid taxes to enemies, Mr. Kashif says the Koran strictly forbids killing civilians. ``If you are against the civilians, that is not jihad. What happened [at the] World Trade Center, with the innocent women and children, we disagree with that.``

But another Jamaat member, Tahir Rabbani, sees the present war in much larger terms. The duty of jihad, he says, will eventually demand a final battle between Islam and the West.

``Our task is to end oppression, and until Islam is established over the entire world, the jihad will be continued forever,`` he says. ``There can be no peace without jihad.``

Pakistani Detainee Enjoyed Deep US Roots Arjun:

Yes the Pakistani radio stations in Houston broadcast so much venom and hatred on their radio shows. Most of the Pakistani radio programs are Anti-Indian, Anti-Jewish and Anti American. There are different groups that actually verbally abuse each other on the air. They have created hatred and aliented the South Asian community on the basis of religion. It was all started by Saleem Syed and his ``Young Trang`` and spread by Saeed Gaddi, Masrur Javed Khan and John Shike. Two of these members are running for elections for Houston City Council and are posing as true Americans. Mr M. J. Khan does not believe in democracy as far as PAGH is concerned but is representing American democracy.

Some of the Pakistanis drove one of the competitors Rehan Siddiqui out of Houston to Dallas. He now hosts a show from Dallas.

http://www.mjkhan.com/

http://www.johnshike.com/

Build Bridges, Not Bombs Op-ed: Subverting education

M V Ramana

School texts in Pakistan and India have been systematically subverted and end up promoting hatred and intolerance. This process must be resisted and reversed

One of the slogans of the all-controlling party in George Orwell’s classic book 1984 was “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” Religious fundamentalists of all stripes in South Asia would agree wholly. And the way they attempt to achieve this control is by subverting the educational system. After all children going to school today will be the citizens of the future.

Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in India, the effort to sift the recounting of the past with the sieve of Hindutva has been under way. The process is much older in Pakistan. A recent report compiled by Prof. A. H. Nayyar and Ahmed Salim, and aided by a galaxy of experts, demonstrates how through and following the period of Islamisation in the 1980s, school curricula and textbooks have become systematically distorted in various ways, promoting hatred and intolerance. (See http://www.sdpi.org/archive/nayyar_report.htm)

Controlling the subject matter taught in schools is something all nations indulge in to varying degrees. If nations are, as Benedict Anderson contended, imagined communities, then the process of imagining a new community where formerly there was none inevitably involves sins of omission and commission. Inconvenient facts — for example those that derive from conflicts between the ruling and working classes — are often omitted. Instead some kind of united identity as citizens of the nation state is devised, sometimes by postulating conflict with some other nation.

While all states manipulate textbooks, not all manipulations are equally egregious. The distortions that derive from some form of secular nationalism are usually less virulent and dangerous when compared to those originating in religious nationalism. As political scientist Srirupa Roy has argued, the Indian state initially chose to define ‘India’ in terms of its cultural diversity (though selectively applied) and presented itself as the sole unifying agent capable of achieving order and stability. This is a much more tolerant and secular idea compared to the Hindutva conceptualisation of India’s history, which postulates a unitary Hindu population under attack from various foreign forces — first the Muslims, then the British, and, to the extent that they want to acknowledge it, the Communists. The 3 M’s (Madrasas, Macaulay and Marx) as they are sometimes called. This conception then furthers antipathy to Islam and selected ‘Western’ ideals like secularism and democracy.

Armed with this belief system, the BJP has infiltrated educational institutions, especially the agencies that set curricula and produce textbooks, appointing people whose views are sympathetic to its philosophy. For example, the new textbook for Class XII entitled Modern India is written by Satish Chandra Mittal, a retired professor of history. Among his qualifications is a stated unhappiness with what he called too much emphasis on Hindu-Muslim unity and composite culture in history books. He has also stated in the Allahabad High Court that the Hindu deity Lord Rama was not a mythological personality, but a historical personality, and that he was Lord Almighty who trod the earth in human form.

These efforts by the BJP have been strenuously opposed. The Indian History Congress has set up a committee to examine the new history textbooks brought out by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Several state governments have decided not to use the new NCERT textbooks. There have been petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the new curricula. Regardless of the results of these challenges, it is clear that as long as the BJP rules India, its ability to further this process of communalising history and poisoning young minds is likely to increase.

Some idea of what this process may lead to can be obtained from the report by Nayyar and Salim mentioned earlier. The report is titled ‘The Subtle Subversion’, which is both ironical and ominous. Ironical because to any objective reader the subversion should be all too obvious with nothing subtle about it. But the fact that it may seem subtle to some, i.e. the process has gone on unnoticed, is itself evidence of how far this subversion has permeated national consciousness; that is truly ominous.

Nayyar and Salim argue that the kind of history taught in Pakistan’s schools ‘leave a false understanding of...national experience’. The definition of Pakistani nationalism in effect excludes non-Muslim Pakistanis from ‘either being Pakistani nationals or from even being good human beings.’ Official school curricula also glorify war and the use of force, urging students to take the path of Jihad and Shahadat. (Though not mentioned in the report, one would expect that the target of the wars and Jihad is India.)

One common feature in these distorted textbooks in India and Pakistan is the introduction of facts that prejudice students against the ‘other’ community. In the new NCERT textbook on Ancient India, for example, there is the intentional introduction of Osama Bin Laden in a box on ‘cultural contacts with the outside world’. There is, of course, no relevance to this introduction and it seems but a clumsy effort to tar the entire Islamic community with the brush of terrorism. Similarly, A H Nayyar points out that statements like ‘The religion of the Hindus did not teach them good things — Hindus did not respect women...’ and ‘Hindus worship in temples which are very narrow and dark places, where they worship idols...’ are introduced in Pakistani curricula to create ‘hate and denigration’ for Hindus.

The great Arab historian Ibn Khaldun argued that the “inner meaning of history...involves speculation and an attempt to get at the truth, subtle explanation of the causes and origins of existing things, and deep knowledge of the how and why of events.” It is such a conceptualisation of history that should guide school textbooks. Indeed the larger purpose of education itself should be to promote a critical understanding of the world, empowering students to make sense of society and eventually effect progressive social change. At stake is our common future.

M V Ramana is a physicist and research staff member at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security and co-editor of Prisoners of the Nuclear Dream

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-8-2003_pg3_6

Build Bridges, Not Bombs Majority of Pakistanis see India as enemy, poll says

2003-08-18 / Reuters /
Most Pakistanis view India as an enemy and 47 percent feel that Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee`s recent peace initiative is a gimmick, according to an opinion poll.

The poll published in the Indian newsweekly Outlook, which hit the stands yesterday, showed 79 percent of people in Pakistan felt the Kashmir issue needed to resolved for better ties between the two nuclear-capable neighbours.

The survey was conducted by Gallup-Business Research Bureau, a Pakistan affiliate of Gallup International and polled 1,338 people on August 3 and 4 in all four provinces of Pakistan.

The poll showed 54 percent saw India as an enemy.

India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir but in recent months have taken steps to improve relations, raising prospects for peace in the Himalayan region at the heart of more than half a century of tension between the two countries.

On Friday Vajpayee called on Pakistan to walk the road of peace but said Islamabad must end what he called cross-border terrorism.

Last year the nuclear rivals came close to waging their fourth war since independence from Britain in 1947 after an attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistani militants fighting its rule in disputed Kashmir.

The two countries restored diplomatic ties and bus links after Vajpayee vowed in April to make a final bid for peace.

About 69 percent of Pakistanis felt the conversion of the 740 kilometer line of control that divides Kashmir between the two neighbours into the international border would not solve the Kashmir problem.

Authorities say about 38,000 people have been killed in Kashmir since the insurgency began in 1989. India controls 45 percent of Kashmir, Pakistan just over a third and China the rest.

India accuses Pakistan of arming, training and sending militants into Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan denies the charge but says it provides moral, diplomatic and political support to what it calls Kashmiri freedom fighters.

Sixty-two percent of Pakistanis said they would not trust the United States to broker peace between the two countries while 32 percent approved of Washington playing peacemaker.

The United States has been in the forefront of efforts to ease tensions in the region and promote the peace process.

The poll showed 63 percent approved of Pakistan having trade relations with India; 35 percent said no.

The long-standing rivalry between the two South Asian rivals has significantly restricted official bilateral trade, which was a mere US$204 million between July 2001 and March 2002.

Traders have had to carry out the bulk of their business unofficially through third countries, such as Dubai or Singapore.

Economists say the potential for bilateral trade is massive should trade restrictions be lifted, given the combined population of India and Pakistan of around 1.15 billion people.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/Asia/2003/08/18/1061170765.htm

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2630113a12,00.html

http://www.lexpress.mu/display_article.php?news_id=2539

Youth Without Borders When self-determination equals self-destruction
By Stanley A Weiss

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.

LONDON - India`s Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani told me the story this way. Pakistan`s President General Pervez Musharraf looked at his Indian guests and said, ``I was born in India and, after partition, my family settled in Karachi, the capital of Pakistan`s Sindh province. Why not let the people of Kashmir decide whether they want to continue to be a part of India?``

To which Advani replied, ``I was born in Karachi and, after partition, moved to India. Why not let the people of Sindh decide whether they want to continue to be a part of Pakistan?`` At which point Musharraf changed the subject, knowing full well that the Sindhis would vote for independence.

The terse encounter highlights the central tension underlying much of today`s instability from the Indian sub-continent to Afghanistan to Iraq and in many other countries - self-determination vs national preservation. Frustrated by centuries-old conflicts, some Western observers have advocated redrawing the regional maps and carving up ``artificial countries`` created by former colonial powers.

At first glance, certain states seem ripe for the picking.

Pakistan is an invention - literally an acronym denoting the provinces of the new Muslim state after its 1947 partition with India: ``P`` for Punjab, ``A`` for the Afghan-border region of the northwest frontier, ``K`` for Kashmir, ``S`` for Sindh, and ``TAN`` for Balochistan.

The dominant Punjabis have never succeeded in forging a Pakistani national identity. Balochistan, Pakistan`s largest province, has chaffed under the iron fist of Islamabad. (When I asked my cab driver here in London if he was Pakistani, he replied indignantly, ``I am not Pakistani! I am from Balochistan!``) Pashtuns in the North-West Frontier Province have long dreamed of an independent Pashtunistan with their ethnic cousins across the Afghan border.

Likewise, the dominant Pashtuns of southern Afghanistan have never forged a unifying national psyche. Tajiks, Uzbeks and Turkmens in the north have more in common with their brethren in neighboring Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In the west, Herat province is reverting to its historical role as a virtual extension of Iran.

Finally, whether Iraq survives as a multi-ethnic nation may hinge on the Kurds, the world`s largest ethnic group without its own state. Today, 30 million Kurds are spread across Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, and repeated Kurdish rebellions have been brutally crushed.

So why not think the unthinkable and simply dispense with the irrational borders of the past? After all, isn`t the birth of new states from the wreckage of Yugoslavia the latest tribute to self-determination?

On the contrary. The orgy of violence that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia would be a picnic compared to the carnage if dysfunctional states like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq fell - or are pushed - apart. Ethnic minorities should be careful what they wish for: reckless quests for self-determination may only sow the seeds of their self-destruction.

Don`t expect Islamabad to give up Sindh and Karachi, Pakistan`s financial capital and the source of most of the nation`s revenues. Pakistan`s eastern wing, now Bangladesh, won its war for independence in 1971, but 3 million Bengalis died in the process. The Punjabis have suppressed past rebellions in Balochistan and would do so again. Pro-Taliban Islamists effectively control the provincial legislatures of Balochistan and North-West Frontier Province. Is the world prepared for two new independent al-Qaeda havens?

In Afghanistan, the Pashtuns may long for unity with their Pakistani cousins, but not at the expense of losing influence over the more fertile and prosperous regions of the north.

The Kurds may have found an answer. The continued presence of Turkish troops in northern Iraq is a blunt reminder that Ankara will forcibly oppose an independent Kurdistan, which could incite Turkey`s own restive Kurds. Bowing to reality, Kurdish leaders in Iraq appear to have abandoned their quest for statehood, casting their lot with a federal Iraq that preserves Kurdish autonomy.

Autonomy could also break the Gordian Knot of Kashmir. Lose the ``K`` in Pakistan to India and Pakistan loses its raison d`etre as a homeland for Muslims on the sub-continent. Similarly, if India gives up its only Muslim-majority state, it risks losing its national identity as a secular state in a predominantly Hindu country. Ceding Kashmir`s 4 million Muslims to Pakistan would prompt Hindu extremists to unleash a wholesale ethnic cleansing of India`s 150 million Muslims and a flood of refugees that would destroy Pakistan.

So why not compromise? Pakistan controls 35 percent of Kashmir and could accept the present Line of Control, agreed to in 1972, as the permanent border. In return, India could restore to Kashmir the autonomy that it enjoyed for several years after partition.

In an ideal world, each of these distinct ethnic groups could have their own independent homelands. And some day, they just might. But in today`s real world, their security and survival lies not with independence, but with a high degree of autonomy. And there is nothing artificial about that.

Stanley A Weiss is founder and chairman of Business Executives for National Security, a national, nonpartisan organization of business leaders based in Washington. This is a personal comment.

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/EH12Aa01.html

Foreign Investment Whatever lustre Karachi and Lahore enjoy in their islands of modernity is owed to the small middle class that resides there. The miniscule size of the middle class in the NWFP and Balochistan is one reason why the MMA culture has come to dominate Peshawar and Quetta. The latter’s colonial charm was a carry over form the British Raj. Indigenous moorings are shallow. It is a wonder that in the absence of a significant middle class the colonial tradition survived into the 1980s.

The picture across the border in India is different mainly due to our neighbour’s considerably larger population base of 1.1 billion. The poor in India constitute 26 percent of the population i.e., about 270 million individuals. The rest of the population is distributed in different income groups in a pattern similar to ours. However, India’s much larger population base yields a middle class of about 150 million individuals. Even though in similar proportion to total population as ours, it is large enough in absolute numbers to shape urban cultures (newspapers, libraries, electronic media, restaurants, theatres, cinemas, shopping centres etc) in several large cities such as Delhi, Bombay, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Madras.

Moreover, the North-South divide has forced middle-class India to adopt English as the main language for communication. This has given a fresh impetus to colonial traditions. The small NWFP middle class, meanwhile, is defined by remittance income from the Middle East and the cultural baggage that comes with it. Bangalore thus feels much closer to the British Raj and its current globalised version, America-led corporate culture, than does Peshawar despite the substantial presence of the Raj in both cities before 1947. And this difference is likely to grow as the middle class in India elects governments that, no matter how vile their local rhetoric and deeds, welcome Western investments and technology. Meanwhile, MMA’s Peshawar, undisciplined by the vote of a forward-looking middle class, shuns the outside world and leaps into the unknown.

Herein lies the difference between their extremists and ours.

The writer is a leading economist of Pakistan

Message in the Bubble Burst Whatever lustre Karachi and Lahore enjoy in their islands of modernity is owed to the small middle class that resides there. The miniscule size of the middle class in the NWFP and Balochistan is one reason why the MMA culture has come to dominate Peshawar and Quetta. The latter’s colonial charm was a carry over form the British Raj. Indigenous moorings are shallow. It is a wonder that in the absence of a significant middle class the colonial tradition survived into the 1980s.

The picture across the border in India is different mainly due to our neighbour’s considerably larger population base of 1.1 billion. The poor in India constitute 26 percent of the population i.e., about 270 million individuals. The rest of the population is distributed in different income groups in a pattern similar to ours. However, India’s much larger population base yields a middle class of about 150 million individuals. Even though in similar proportion to total population as ours, it is large enough in absolute numbers to shape urban cultures (newspapers, libraries, electronic media, restaurants, theatres, cinemas, shopping centres etc) in several large cities such as Delhi, Bombay, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Madras.

Moreover, the North-South divide has forced middle-class India to adopt English as the main language for communication. This has given a fresh impetus to colonial traditions. The small NWFP middle class, meanwhile, is defined by remittance income from the Middle East and the cultural baggage that comes with it. Bangalore thus feels much closer to the British Raj and its current globalised version, America-led corporate culture, than does Peshawar despite the substantial presence of the Raj in both cities before 1947. And this difference is likely to grow as the middle class in India elects governments that, no matter how vile their local rhetoric and deeds, welcome Western investments and technology. Meanwhile, MMA’s Peshawar, undisciplined by the vote of a forward-looking middle class, shuns the outside world and leaps into the unknown.

Herein lies the difference between their extremists and ours.

The writer is a leading economist of Pakistan

Hatred Hatred of India springs from school texts in Pakistan

Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Wednesday, July 30, 2003

---

San Francisco Chronicle

Islamabad, Pakistan -- Sohail Khan thinks he knows all he needs to know when it comes to Pakistan`s larger, predominantly Hindu neighbor, India.

``Hindus cannot be trusted,`` the 15-year-old said firmly. ``Since the day Pakistan got independence, India has been trying to destroy us any way they can with the help of other infidel nations.``

Dismissing renewed efforts by both countries to reconcile their bitter and bloody 55-year-long rivalry, he insisted, ``Talk of peace hides a different plan that only they know.``

Young Khan`s harsh words -- echoed widely in varying degrees by Pakistanis across the social and political spectrum -- are hardly surprising, because they are the product of a government-endorsed curriculum taught in public schools around the country.

Pakistan`s madrassa (religious school) system, where ultra-conservative Muslim clerics dole out an excruciatingly narrow world view, has achieved global notoriety for producing thousands of young men dedicated to holy war. But the public school curriculum weaves in many similar concepts -- including insensitivity to other religions, militancy and the glorification of war.

``Honestly speaking, there should be less fear of madrassa curricula, which is comparatively limited in scope, and more fear of the books being used in public schools,`` said Ahmed Salim, director of Urdu publications at Islamabad`s Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SPDI).

``While President (Pervez) Musharraf has spoken passionately about the goal of a modern, tolerant, progressive Pakistan, the curriculum used is serving exactly the opposite purpose and will reflect upon his policies badly,`` Salim said

Public school textbooks are replete with examples.

A Muslim chauvinist view dominates the curriculum, and knowledge of Islam and the Koran is compulsory, even for non-Muslim students.

Social studies teachers in grades 1 through 5 are ordered to include units each year that instruct students in the concept and importance of jihad (holy war), and even require youngsters to deliver speeches on the subject.

The 10th-grade Pakistan studies textbook minces no words in its endorsement of Islam:

``A good person is one who leads his life according to the teachings of Allah and the Holy Prophet. He is pious and virtuous. He follows the principles and teachings of Islam individually and collectively and makes an effort to promote them. According to the teachings of Islam, a person who follows the right path is distinguished from others.``

Intolerance toward other religions is often stated unequivocally.

``Hindu has always been the enemy of Islam,`` according to the fifth-grade Urdu textbook.

The sixth-grade social studies book, chapter 5, tells of how higher-caste Hindus have abused humanity by crushing the lower castes, and how Buddhism was eventually corrupted after it arose to challenge Hinduism. One sentence declares: ``Islam preached equality, brotherhood and fraternity. The foundation of Hindu (society) was formed on injustice and cruelty.``

The curriculum also stresses male superiority over women, sometimes in subtle ways.

From the early grades, girls are depicted nearly exclusively in traditional roles -- such as helping their mothers in the kitchen, taught in the pages of a third-grade Urdu textbook. Rarely are they described as playing sports or having professions -- and when they are, they appear as foreigners or non- Muslims, like ``Mrs. Brown,`` the airline hostess in the grade 8 English book.

Even famous Pakistani and/or Muslim women are cast in stereotypical roles. Fatima Jinnah, one of only a handful of women to appear in Urdu textbooks, is cited only for serving as the nurse and fervent supporter of her brother Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Fatima Jinnah, in fact, was a pioneer, beginning her adult life as a dentist who founded and ran her own clinic in Bombay before abandoning the profession in the 1930s to join her brother`s political fight. She set up the All India Muslim Women Students Federation in 1941 in Delhi and then formed the Women`s Relief Committee in 1947 (which eventually morphed into the All Pakistan Women`s Association, still active today). She later ran for president against Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1965.

Warped accounts of history and reverence for Muslim or military figures are drilled into students` heads -- a holdover from the need after the 1947 partition to create a vision of Pakistan as a nation separate from India. The vision was then further refined by successive governments for their own political goals -- especially the military, which has ruled by force for 30 of Pakistan`s 55 years of existence.

Salim says: ``Throughout the formative years, children are presented with pious glorious images of the military and given numerous glorified accounts of military heroics and the respect that gains. If a child learns that violence is a positive attribute, then that child is more likely to resort to violent means in situations that don`t justify the action.``

Textbook depictions of the subcontinent`s bloody partition, a time when 1 million people lost their lives through atrocities by both Hindu and Muslim militants, are one-sided.

A passage in the fourth-grade social studies book stresses the agony of Muslims making their way to Pakistan while glossing over the price paid by others:

``They came . . . leaving their homes, shops, agricultural, goods and beasts in India. On their way to Pakistan, a large number of immigrants were killed by the Sikhs and Hindus. They suffered a lot during their journey. At that time Sikhs and Hindus as well left Pakistan for India.``

There were, in fact, enough atrocities to go around, and the textbooks omit a two-month rampage in the Pakistani military city of Rawalpindi that saw thousands of non-Muslims beaten, killed or maimed.

For most older Pakistanis, last year`s riots in Gujarat, India, during which mobs of Hindus hunted down Muslims after militant Muslims torched a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, were a lamentable continuation of post- partition scarring. But students see the event as course work come to life.

``It`s plain to see the Hindus can murder women and children and go unpunished, but when the Muslims stand for themselves in India, they are called terrorists,`` said teenager Khan.

School Principal Raifakat Hussein says that the curriculum`s selective history prevents a proper understanding of events and does little to encourage self-criticism and analysis among the younger generations.

``Children need to learn the truth about the history of their country, society and government -- even if it`s not all pretty and neat,`` said Hussein, who oversees the Montessori Primary School in the eastern city of Lahore.

Educators, psychologists, lawyers and minority representatives joined with the SPDI to study the current curriculum after its revision this spring by the Musharraf government -- which included improvements in English grammar sections, and the slight toning down of the glorification of holy war and dismissive references to non-Muslims.

Classroom priorities are centralized under the command of the Education Ministry`s Curriculum Wing.

``We are constantly looking at ways to revise, reorder and update,`` contended Haroona Jetoi, joint education secretary of the Curriculum Wing. ``Where there are problems they are addressed, and will continue to be.``

But participants in the study call the recent curriculum changes ``poorly defined alterations`` unlikely to filter down into a mass revision of textbooks.

``Historical inaccuracies, omissions and incitement to violence remain key features,`` said Salim.

Some government and education officials quietly admit that most textbooks remain the same, and that many provincial-level education officials are lax or content with the status quo.

There are no plans on the table for further curriculum changes in the next five years.

And therein lies great danger, educators say.

``Children are impressionable -- they are molded by what they are taught,`` said principal Hussein. ``If they learn intolerance and hatred at a young age, it will stay with them their whole lives.

``If we are seriously talking about peace with India, modernization and being part of the global community, how can teaching our children to hate be compatible with those goals?``

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/30/MN241108.DTL


Page A - 11

Coming to Terms with Kargil Hatred of India springs from school texts in Pakistan

Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Wednesday, July 30, 2003

---

San Francisco Chronicle

Islamabad, Pakistan -- Sohail Khan thinks he knows all he needs to know when it comes to Pakistan`s larger, predominantly Hindu neighbor, India.

``Hindus cannot be trusted,`` the 15-year-old said firmly. ``Since the day Pakistan got independence, India has been trying to destroy us any way they can with the help of other infidel nations.``

Dismissing renewed efforts by both countries to reconcile their bitter and bloody 55-year-long rivalry, he insisted, ``Talk of peace hides a different plan that only they know.``

Young Khan`s harsh words -- echoed widely in varying degrees by Pakistanis across the social and political spectrum -- are hardly surprising, because they are the product of a government-endorsed curriculum taught in public schools around the country.

Pakistan`s madrassa (religious school) system, where ultra-conservative Muslim clerics dole out an excruciatingly narrow world view, has achieved global notoriety for producing thousands of young men dedicated to holy war. But the public school curriculum weaves in many similar concepts -- including insensitivity to other religions, militancy and the glorification of war.

``Honestly speaking, there should be less fear of madrassa curricula, which is comparatively limited in scope, and more fear of the books being used in public schools,`` said Ahmed Salim, director of Urdu publications at Islamabad`s Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SPDI).

``While President (Pervez) Musharraf has spoken passionately about the goal of a modern, tolerant, progressive Pakistan, the curriculum used is serving exactly the opposite purpose and will reflect upon his policies badly,`` Salim said

Public school textbooks are replete with examples.

A Muslim chauvinist view dominates the curriculum, and knowledge of Islam and the Koran is compulsory, even for non-Muslim students.

Social studies teachers in grades 1 through 5 are ordered to include units each year that instruct students in the concept and importance of jihad (holy war), and even require youngsters to deliver speeches on the subject.

The 10th-grade Pakistan studies textbook minces no words in its endorsement of Islam:

``A good person is one who leads his life according to the teachings of Allah and the Holy Prophet. He is pious and virtuous. He follows the principles and teachings of Islam individually and collectively and makes an effort to promote them. According to the teachings of Islam, a person who follows the right path is distinguished from others.``

Intolerance toward other religions is often stated unequivocally.

``Hindu has always been the enemy of Islam,`` according to the fifth-grade Urdu textbook.

The sixth-grade social studies book, chapter 5, tells of how higher-caste Hindus have abused humanity by crushing the lower castes, and how Buddhism was eventually corrupted after it arose to challenge Hinduism. One sentence declares: ``Islam preached equality, brotherhood and fraternity. The foundation of Hindu (society) was formed on injustice and cruelty.``

The curriculum also stresses male superiority over women, sometimes in subtle ways.

From the early grades, girls are depicted nearly exclusively in traditional roles -- such as helping their mothers in the kitchen, taught in the pages of a third-grade Urdu textbook. Rarely are they described as playing sports or having professions -- and when they are, they appear as foreigners or non- Muslims, like ``Mrs. Brown,`` the airline hostess in the grade 8 English book.

Even famous Pakistani and/or Muslim women are cast in stereotypical roles. Fatima Jinnah, one of only a handful of women to appear in Urdu textbooks, is cited only for serving as the nurse and fervent supporter of her brother Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Fatima Jinnah, in fact, was a pioneer, beginning her adult life as a dentist who founded and ran her own clinic in Bombay before abandoning the profession in the 1930s to join her brother`s political fight. She set up the All India Muslim Women Students Federation in 1941 in Delhi and then formed the Women`s Relief Committee in 1947 (which eventually morphed into the All Pakistan Women`s Association, still active today). She later ran for president against Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1965.

Warped accounts of history and reverence for Muslim or military figures are drilled into students` heads -- a holdover from the need after the 1947 partition to create a vision of Pakistan as a nation separate from India. The vision was then further refined by successive governments for their own political goals -- especially the military, which has ruled by force for 30 of Pakistan`s 55 years of existence.

Salim says: ``Throughout the formative years, children are presented with pious glorious images of the military and given numerous glorified accounts of military heroics and the respect that gains. If a child learns that violence is a positive attribute, then that child is more likely to resort to violent means in situations that don`t justify the action.``

Textbook depictions of the subcontinent`s bloody partition, a time when 1 million people lost their lives through atrocities by both Hindu and Muslim militants, are one-sided.

A passage in the fourth-grade social studies book stresses the agony of Muslims making their way to Pakistan while glossing over the price paid by others:

``They came . . . leaving their homes, shops, agricultural, goods and beasts in India. On their way to Pakistan, a large number of immigrants were killed by the Sikhs and Hindus. They suffered a lot during their journey. At that time Sikhs and Hindus as well left Pakistan for India.``

There were, in fact, enough atrocities to go around, and the textbooks omit a two-month rampage in the Pakistani military city of Rawalpindi that saw thousands of non-Muslims beaten, killed or maimed.

For most older Pakistanis, last year`s riots in Gujarat, India, during which mobs of Hindus hunted down Muslims after militant Muslims torched a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, were a lamentable continuation of post- partition scarring. But students see the event as course work come to life.

``It`s plain to see the Hindus can murder women and children and go unpunished, but when the Muslims stand for themselves in India, they are called terrorists,`` said teenager Khan.

School Principal Raifakat Hussein says that the curriculum`s selective history prevents a proper understanding of events and does little to encourage self-criticism and analysis among the younger generations.

``Children need to learn the truth about the history of their country, society and government -- even if it`s not all pretty and neat,`` said Hussein, who oversees the Montessori Primary School in the eastern city of Lahore.

Educators, psychologists, lawyers and minority representatives joined with the SPDI to study the current curriculum after its revision this spring by the Musharraf government -- which included improvements in English grammar sections, and the slight toning down of the glorification of holy war and dismissive references to non-Muslims.

Classroom priorities are centralized under the command of the Education Ministry`s Curriculum Wing.

``We are constantly looking at ways to revise, reorder and update,`` contended Haroona Jetoi, joint education secretary of the Curriculum Wing. ``Where there are problems they are addressed, and will continue to be.``

But participants in the study call the recent curriculum changes ``poorly defined alterations`` unlikely to filter down into a mass revision of textbooks.

``Historical inaccuracies, omissions and incitement to violence remain key features,`` said Salim.

Some government and education officials quietly admit that most textbooks remain the same, and that many provincial-level education officials are lax or content with the status quo.

There are no plans on the table for further curriculum changes in the next five years.

And therein lies great danger, educators say.

``Children are impressionable -- they are molded by what they are taught,`` said principal Hussein. ``If they learn intolerance and hatred at a young age, it will stay with them their whole lives.

``If we are seriously talking about peace with India, modernization and being part of the global community, how can teaching our children to hate be compatible with those goals?``

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/30/MN241108.DTL


Page A - 11

Al-Quds Divided: The Politics of Hatred Hatred of India springs from school texts in Pakistan

Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Wednesday, July 30, 2003

---

San Francisco Chronicle

Islamabad, Pakistan -- Sohail Khan thinks he knows all he needs to know when it comes to Pakistan`s larger, predominantly Hindu neighbor, India.

``Hindus cannot be trusted,`` the 15-year-old said firmly. ``Since the day Pakistan got independence, India has been trying to destroy us any way they can with the help of other infidel nations.``

Dismissing renewed efforts by both countries to reconcile their bitter and bloody 55-year-long rivalry, he insisted, ``Talk of peace hides a different plan that only they know.``

Young Khan`s harsh words -- echoed widely in varying degrees by Pakistanis across the social and political spectrum -- are hardly surprising, because they are the product of a government-endorsed curriculum taught in public schools around the country.

Pakistan`s madrassa (religious school) system, where ultra-conservative Muslim clerics dole out an excruciatingly narrow world view, has achieved global notoriety for producing thousands of young men dedicated to holy war. But the public school curriculum weaves in many similar concepts -- including insensitivity to other religions, militancy and the glorification of war.

``Honestly speaking, there should be less fear of madrassa curricula, which is comparatively limited in scope, and more fear of the books being used in public schools,`` said Ahmed Salim, director of Urdu publications at Islamabad`s Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SPDI).

``While President (Pervez) Musharraf has spoken passionately about the goal of a modern, tolerant, progressive Pakistan, the curriculum used is serving exactly the opposite purpose and will reflect upon his policies badly,`` Salim said

Public school textbooks are replete with examples.

A Muslim chauvinist view dominates the curriculum, and knowledge of Islam and the Koran is compulsory, even for non-Muslim students.

Social studies teachers in grades 1 through 5 are ordered to include units each year that instruct students in the concept and importance of jihad (holy war), and even require youngsters to deliver speeches on the subject.

The 10th-grade Pakistan studies textbook minces no words in its endorsement of Islam:

``A good person is one who leads his life according to the teachings of Allah and the Holy Prophet. He is pious and virtuous. He follows the principles and teachings of Islam individually and collectively and makes an effort to promote them. According to the teachings of Islam, a person who follows the right path is distinguished from others.``

Intolerance toward other religions is often stated unequivocally.

``Hindu has always been the enemy of Islam,`` according to the fifth-grade Urdu textbook.

The sixth-grade social studies book, chapter 5, tells of how higher-caste Hindus have abused humanity by crushing the lower castes, and how Buddhism was eventually corrupted after it arose to challenge Hinduism. One sentence declares: ``Islam preached equality, brotherhood and fraternity. The foundation of Hindu (society) was formed on injustice and cruelty.``

The curriculum also stresses male superiority over women, sometimes in subtle ways.

From the early grades, girls are depicted nearly exclusively in traditional roles -- such as helping their mothers in the kitchen, taught in the pages of a third-grade Urdu textbook. Rarely are they described as playing sports or having professions -- and when they are, they appear as foreigners or non- Muslims, like ``Mrs. Brown,`` the airline hostess in the grade 8 English book.

Even famous Pakistani and/or Muslim women are cast in stereotypical roles. Fatima Jinnah, one of only a handful of women to appear in Urdu textbooks, is cited only for serving as the nurse and fervent supporter of her brother Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Fatima Jinnah, in fact, was a pioneer, beginning her adult life as a dentist who founded and ran her own clinic in Bombay before abandoning the profession in the 1930s to join her brother`s political fight. She set up the All India Muslim Women Students Federation in 1941 in Delhi and then formed the Women`s Relief Committee in 1947 (which eventually morphed into the All Pakistan Women`s Association, still active today). She later ran for president against Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1965.

Warped accounts of history and reverence for Muslim or military figures are drilled into students` heads -- a holdover from the need after the 1947 partition to create a vision of Pakistan as a nation separate from India. The vision was then further refined by successive governments for their own political goals -- especially the military, which has ruled by force for 30 of Pakistan`s 55 years of existence.

Salim says: ``Throughout the formative years, children are presented with pious glorious images of the military and given numerous glorified accounts of military heroics and the respect that gains. If a child learns that violence is a positive attribute, then that child is more likely to resort to violent means in situations that don`t justify the action.``

Textbook depictions of the subcontinent`s bloody partition, a time when 1 million people lost their lives through atrocities by both Hindu and Muslim militants, are one-sided.

A passage in the fourth-grade social studies book stresses the agony of Muslims making their way to Pakistan while glossing over the price paid by others:

``They came . . . leaving their homes, shops, agricultural, goods and beasts in India. On their way to Pakistan, a large number of immigrants were killed by the Sikhs and Hindus. They suffered a lot during their journey. At that time Sikhs and Hindus as well left Pakistan for India.``

There were, in fact, enough atrocities to go around, and the textbooks omit a two-month rampage in the Pakistani military city of Rawalpindi that saw thousands of non-Muslims beaten, killed or maimed.

For most older Pakistanis, last year`s riots in Gujarat, India, during which mobs of Hindus hunted down Muslims after militant Muslims torched a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, were a lamentable continuation of post- partition scarring. But students see the event as course work come to life.

``It`s plain to see the Hindus can murder women and children and go unpunished, but when the Muslims stand for themselves in India, they are called terrorists,`` said teenager Khan.

School Principal Raifakat Hussein says that the curriculum`s selective history prevents a proper understanding of events and does little to encourage self-criticism and analysis among the younger generations.

``Children need to learn the truth about the history of their country, society and government -- even if it`s not all pretty and neat,`` said Hussein, who oversees the Montessori Primary School in the eastern city of Lahore.

Educators, psychologists, lawyers and minority representatives joined with the SPDI to study the current curriculum after its revision this spring by the Musharraf government -- which included improvements in English grammar sections, and the slight toning down of the glorification of holy war and dismissive references to non-Muslims.

Classroom priorities are centralized under the command of the Education Ministry`s Curriculum Wing.

``We are constantly looking at ways to revise, reorder and update,`` contended Haroona Jetoi, joint education secretary of the Curriculum Wing. ``Where there are problems they are addressed, and will continue to be.``

But participants in the study call the recent curriculum changes ``poorly defined alterations`` unlikely to filter down into a mass revision of textbooks.

``Historical inaccuracies, omissions and incitement to violence remain key features,`` said Salim.

Some government and education officials quietly admit that most textbooks remain the same, and that many provincial-level education officials are lax or content with the status quo.

There are no plans on the table for further curriculum changes in the next five years.

And therein lies great danger, educators say.

``Children are impressionable -- they are molded by what they are taught,`` said principal Hussein. ``If they learn intolerance and hatred at a young age, it will stay with them their whole lives.

``If we are seriously talking about peace with India, modernization and being part of the global community, how can teaching our children to hate be compatible with those goals?``

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/30/MN241108.DTL


Page A - 11

All The Way To Maine Hatred of India springs from school texts in Pakistan

Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Wednesday, July 30, 2003

---

San Francisco Chronicle

Islamabad, Pakistan -- Sohail Khan thinks he knows all he needs to know when it comes to Pakistan`s larger, predominantly Hindu neighbor, India.

``Hindus cannot be trusted,`` the 15-year-old said firmly. ``Since the day Pakistan got independence, India has been trying to destroy us any way they can with the help of other infidel nations.``

Dismissing renewed efforts by both countries to reconcile their bitter and bloody 55-year-long rivalry, he insisted, ``Talk of peace hides a different plan that only they know.``

Young Khan`s harsh words -- echoed widely in varying degrees by Pakistanis across the social and political spectrum -- are hardly surprising, because they are the product of a government-endorsed curriculum taught in public schools around the country.

Pakistan`s madrassa (religious school) system, where ultra-conservative Muslim clerics dole out an excruciatingly narrow world view, has achieved global notoriety for producing thousands of young men dedicated to holy war. But the public school curriculum weaves in many similar concepts -- including insensitivity to other religions, militancy and the glorification of war.

``Honestly speaking, there should be less fear of madrassa curricula, which is comparatively limited in scope, and more fear of the books being used in public schools,`` said Ahmed Salim, director of Urdu publications at Islamabad`s Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SPDI).

``While President (Pervez) Musharraf has spoken passionately about the goal of a modern, tolerant, progressive Pakistan, the curriculum used is serving exactly the opposite purpose and will reflect upon his policies badly,`` Salim said

Public school textbooks are replete with examples.

A Muslim chauvinist view dominates the curriculum, and knowledge of Islam and the Koran is compulsory, even for non-Muslim students.

Social studies teachers in grades 1 through 5 are ordered to include units each year that instruct students in the concept and importance of jihad (holy war), and even require youngsters to deliver speeches on the subject.

The 10th-grade Pakistan studies textbook minces no words in its endorsement of Islam:

``A good person is one who leads his life according to the teachings of Allah and the Holy Prophet. He is pious and virtuous. He follows the principles and teachings of Islam individually and collectively and makes an effort to promote them. According to the teachings of Islam, a person who follows the right path is distinguished from others.``

Intolerance toward other religions is often stated unequivocally.

``Hindu has always been the enemy of Islam,`` according to the fifth-grade Urdu textbook.

The sixth-grade social studies book, chapter 5, tells of how higher-caste Hindus have abused humanity by crushing the lower castes, and how Buddhism was eventually corrupted after it arose to challenge Hinduism. One sentence declares: ``Islam preached equality, brotherhood and fraternity. The foundation of Hindu (society) was formed on injustice and cruelty.``

The curriculum also stresses male superiority over women, sometimes in subtle ways.

From the early grades, girls are depicted nearly exclusively in traditional roles -- such as helping their mothers in the kitchen, taught in the pages of a third-grade Urdu textbook. Rarely are they described as playing sports or having professions -- and when they are, they appear as foreigners or non- Muslims, like ``Mrs. Brown,`` the airline hostess in the grade 8 English book.

Even famous Pakistani and/or Muslim women are cast in stereotypical roles. Fatima Jinnah, one of only a handful of women to appear in Urdu textbooks, is cited only for serving as the nurse and fervent supporter of her brother Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Fatima Jinnah, in fact, was a pioneer, beginning her adult life as a dentist who founded and ran her own clinic in Bombay before abandoning the profession in the 1930s to join her brother`s political fight. She set up the All India Muslim Women Students Federation in 1941 in Delhi and then formed the Women`s Relief Committee in 1947 (which eventually morphed into the All Pakistan Women`s Association, still active today). She later ran for president against Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1965.

Warped accounts of history and reverence for Muslim or military figures are drilled into students` heads -- a holdover from the need after the 1947 partition to create a vision of Pakistan as a nation separate from India. The vision was then further refined by successive governments for their own political goals -- especially the military, which has ruled by force for 30 of Pakistan`s 55 years of existence.

Salim says: ``Throughout the formative years, children are presented with pious glorious images of the military and given numerous glorified accounts of military heroics and the respect that gains. If a child learns that violence is a positive attribute, then that child is more likely to resort to violent means in situations that don`t justify the action.``

Textbook depictions of the subcontinent`s bloody partition, a time when 1 million people lost their lives through atrocities by both Hindu and Muslim militants, are one-sided.

A passage in the fourth-grade social studies book stresses the agony of Muslims making their way to Pakistan while glossing over the price paid by others:

``They came . . . leaving their homes, shops, agricultural, goods and beasts in India. On their way to Pakistan, a large number of immigrants were killed by the Sikhs and Hindus. They suffered a lot during their journey. At that time Sikhs and Hindus as well left Pakistan for India.``

There were, in fact, enough atrocities to go around, and the textbooks omit a two-month rampage in the Pakistani military city of Rawalpindi that saw thousands of non-Muslims beaten, killed or maimed.

For most older Pakistanis, last year`s riots in Gujarat, India, during which mobs of Hindus hunted down Muslims after militant Muslims torched a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, were a lamentable continuation of post- partition scarring. But students see the event as course work come to life.

``It`s plain to see the Hindus can murder women and children and go unpunished, but when the Muslims stand for themselves in India, they are called terrorists,`` said teenager Khan.

School Principal Raifakat Hussein says that the curriculum`s selective history prevents a proper understanding of events and does little to encourage self-criticism and analysis among the younger generations.

``Children need to learn the truth about the history of their country, society and government -- even if it`s not all pretty and neat,`` said Hussein, who oversees the Montessori Primary School in the eastern city of Lahore.

Educators, psychologists, lawyers and minority representatives joined with the SPDI to study the current curriculum after its revision this spring by the Musharraf government -- which included improvements in English grammar sections, and the slight toning down of the glorification of holy war and dismissive references to non-Muslims.

Classroom priorities are centralized under the command of the Education Ministry`s Curriculum Wing.

``We are constantly looking at ways to revise, reorder and update,`` contended Haroona Jetoi, joint education secretary of the Curriculum Wing. ``Where there are problems they are addressed, and will continue to be.``

But participants in the study call the recent curriculum changes ``poorly defined alterations`` unlikely to filter down into a mass revision of textbooks.

``Historical inaccuracies, omissions and incitement to violence remain key features,`` said Salim.

Some government and education officials quietly admit that most textbooks remain the same, and that many provincial-level education officials are lax or content with the status quo.

There are no plans on the table for further curriculum changes in the next five years.

And therein lies great danger, educators say.

``Children are impressionable -- they are molded by what they are taught,`` said principal Hussein. ``If they learn intolerance and hatred at a young age, it will stay with them their whole lives.

``If we are seriously talking about peace with India, modernization and being part of the global community, how can teaching our children to hate be compatible with those goals?``

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/30/MN241108.DTL


Page A - 11

The Beginning of the End of the Kashmir Problem Hatred of India springs from school texts in Pakistan

Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Wednesday, July 30, 2003

---

San Francisco Chronicle

Islamabad, Pakistan -- Sohail Khan thinks he knows all he needs to know when it comes to Pakistan`s larger, predominantly Hindu neighbor, India.

``Hindus cannot be trusted,`` the 15-year-old said firmly. ``Since the day Pakistan got independence, India has been trying to destroy us any way they can with the help of other infidel nations.``

Dismissing renewed efforts by both countries to reconcile their bitter and bloody 55-year-long rivalry, he insisted, ``Talk of peace hides a different plan that only they know.``

Young Khan`s harsh words -- echoed widely in varying degrees by Pakistanis across the social and political spectrum -- are hardly surprising, because they are the product of a government-endorsed curriculum taught in public schools around the country.

Pakistan`s madrassa (religious school) system, where ultra-conservative Muslim clerics dole out an excruciatingly narrow world view, has achieved global notoriety for producing thousands of young men dedicated to holy war. But the public school curriculum weaves in many similar concepts -- including insensitivity to other religions, militancy and the glorification of war.

``Honestly speaking, there should be less fear of madrassa curricula, which is comparatively limited in scope, and more fear of the books being used in public schools,`` said Ahmed Salim, director of Urdu publications at Islamabad`s Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SPDI).

``While President (Pervez) Musharraf has spoken passionately about the goal of a modern, tolerant, progressive Pakistan, the curriculum used is serving exactly the opposite purpose and will reflect upon his policies badly,`` Salim said

Public school textbooks are replete with examples.

A Muslim chauvinist view dominates the curriculum, and knowledge of Islam and the Koran is compulsory, even for non-Muslim students.

Social studies teachers in grades 1 through 5 are ordered to include units each year that instruct students in the concept and importance of jihad (holy war), and even require youngsters to deliver speeches on the subject.

The 10th-grade Pakistan studies textbook minces no words in its endorsement of Islam:

``A good person is one who leads his life according to the teachings of Allah and the Holy Prophet. He is pious and virtuous. He follows the principles and teachings of Islam individually and collectively and makes an effort to promote them. According to the teachings of Islam, a person who follows the right path is distinguished from others.``

Intolerance toward other religions is often stated unequivocally.

``Hindu has always been the enemy of Islam,`` according to the fifth-grade Urdu textbook.

The sixth-grade social studies book, chapter 5, tells of how higher-caste Hindus have abused humanity by crushing the lower castes, and how Buddhism was eventually corrupted after it arose to challenge Hinduism. One sentence declares: ``Islam preached equality, brotherhood and fraternity. The foundation of Hindu (society) was formed on injustice and cruelty.``

The curriculum also stresses male superiority over women, sometimes in subtle ways.

From the early grades, girls are depicted nearly exclusively in traditional roles -- such as helping their mothers in the kitchen, taught in the pages of a third-grade Urdu textbook. Rarely are they described as playing sports or having professions -- and when they are, they appear as foreigners or non- Muslims, like ``Mrs. Brown,`` the airline hostess in the grade 8 English book.

Even famous Pakistani and/or Muslim women are cast in stereotypical roles. Fatima Jinnah, one of only a handful of women to appear in Urdu textbooks, is cited only for serving as the nurse and fervent supporter of her brother Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Fatima Jinnah, in fact, was a pioneer, beginning her adult life as a dentist who founded and ran her own clinic in Bombay before abandoning the profession in the 1930s to join her brother`s political fight. She set up the All India Muslim Women Students Federation in 1941 in Delhi and then formed the Women`s Relief Committee in 1947 (which eventually morphed into the All Pakistan Women`s Association, still active today). She later ran for president against Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1965.

Warped accounts of history and reverence for Muslim or military figures are drilled into students` heads -- a holdover from the need after the 1947 partition to create a vision of Pakistan as a nation separate from India. The vision was then further refined by successive governments for their own political goals -- especially the military, which has ruled by force for 30 of Pakistan`s 55 years of existence.

Salim says: ``Throughout the formative years, children are presented with pious glorious images of the military and given numerous glorified accounts of military heroics and the respect that gains. If a child learns that violence is a positive attribute, then that child is more likely to resort to violent means in situations that don`t justify the action.``

Textbook depictions of the subcontinent`s bloody partition, a time when 1 million people lost their lives through atrocities by both Hindu and Muslim militants, are one-sided.

A passage in the fourth-grade social studies book stresses the agony of Muslims making their way to Pakistan while glossing over the price paid by others:

``They came . . . leaving their homes, shops, agricultural, goods and beasts in India. On their way to Pakistan, a large number of immigrants were killed by the Sikhs and Hindus. They suffered a lot during their journey. At that time Sikhs and Hindus as well left Pakistan for India.``

There were, in fact, enough atrocities to go around, and the textbooks omit a two-month rampage in the Pakistani military city of Rawalpindi that saw thousands of non-Muslims beaten, killed or maimed.

For most older Pakistanis, last year`s riots in Gujarat, India, during which mobs of Hindus hunted down Muslims after militant Muslims torched a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, were a lamentable continuation of post- partition scarring. But students see the event as course work come to life.

``It`s plain to see the Hindus can murder women and children and go unpunished, but when the Muslims stand for themselves in India, they are called terrorists,`` said teenager Khan.

School Principal Raifakat Hussein says that the curriculum`s selective history prevents a proper understanding of events and does little to encourage self-criticism and analysis among the younger generations.

``Children need to learn the truth about the history of their country, society and government -- even if it`s not all pretty and neat,`` said Hussein, who oversees the Montessori Primary School in the eastern city of Lahore.

Educators, psychologists, lawyers and minority representatives joined with the SPDI to study the current curriculum after its revision this spring by the Musharraf government -- which included improvements in English grammar sections, and the slight toning down of the glorification of holy war and dismissive references to non-Muslims.

Classroom priorities are centralized under the command of the Education Ministry`s Curriculum Wing.

``We are constantly looking at ways to revise, reorder and update,`` contended Haroona Jetoi, joint education secretary of the Curriculum Wing. ``Where there are problems they are addressed, and will continue to be.``

But participants in the study call the recent curriculum changes ``poorly defined alterations`` unlikely to filter down into a mass revision of textbooks.

``Historical inaccuracies, omissions and incitement to violence remain key features,`` said Salim.

Some government and education officials quietly admit that most textbooks remain the same, and that many provincial-level education officials are lax or content with the status quo.

There are no plans on the table for further curriculum changes in the next five years.

And therein lies great danger, educators say.

``Children are impressionable -- they are molded by what they are taught,`` said principal Hussein. ``If they learn intolerance and hatred at a young age, it will stay with them their whole lives.

``If we are seriously talking about peace with India, modernization and being part of the global community, how can teaching our children to hate be compatible with those goals?``

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/30/MN241108.DTL


Page A - 11

Our Blind Nuclear Prophets Hatred of India springs from school texts in Pakistan

Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Wednesday, July 30, 2003

---

San Francisco Chronicle

Islamabad, Pakistan -- Sohail Khan thinks he knows all he needs to know when it comes to Pakistan`s larger, predominantly Hindu neighbor, India.

``Hindus cannot be trusted,`` the 15-year-old said firmly. ``Since the day Pakistan got independence, India has been trying to destroy us any way they can with the help of other infidel nations.``

Dismissing renewed efforts by both countries to reconcile their bitter and bloody 55-year-long rivalry, he insisted, ``Talk of peace hides a different plan that only they know.``

Young Khan`s harsh words -- echoed widely in varying degrees by Pakistanis across the social and political spectrum -- are hardly surprising, because they are the product of a government-endorsed curriculum taught in public schools around the country.

Pakistan`s madrassa (religious school) system, where ultra-conservative Muslim clerics dole out an excruciatingly narrow world view, has achieved global notoriety for producing thousands of young men dedicated to holy war. But the public school curriculum weaves in many similar concepts -- including insensitivity to other religions, militancy and the glorification of war.

``Honestly speaking, there should be less fear of madrassa curricula, which is comparatively limited in scope, and more fear of the books being used in public schools,`` said Ahmed Salim, director of Urdu publications at Islamabad`s Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SPDI).

``While President (Pervez) Musharraf has spoken passionately about the goal of a modern, tolerant, progressive Pakistan, the curriculum used is serving exactly the opposite purpose and will reflect upon his policies badly,`` Salim said

Public school textbooks are replete with examples.

A Muslim chauvinist view dominates the curriculum, and knowledge of Islam and the Koran is compulsory, even for non-Muslim students.

Social studies teachers in grades 1 through 5 are ordered to include units each year that instruct students in the concept and importance of jihad (holy war), and even require youngsters to deliver speeches on the subject.

The 10th-grade Pakistan studies textbook minces no words in its endorsement of Islam:

``A good person is one who leads his life according to the teachings of Allah and the Holy Prophet. He is pious and virtuous. He follows the principles and teachings of Islam individually and collectively and makes an effort to promote them. According to the teachings of Islam, a person who follows the right path is distinguished from others.``

Intolerance toward other religions is often stated unequivocally.

``Hindu has always been the enemy of Islam,`` according to the fifth-grade Urdu textbook.

The sixth-grade social studies book, chapter 5, tells of how higher-caste Hindus have abused humanity by crushing the lower castes, and how Buddhism was eventually corrupted after it arose to challenge Hinduism. One sentence declares: ``Islam preached equality, brotherhood and fraternity. The foundation of Hindu (society) was formed on injustice and cruelty.``

The curriculum also stresses male superiority over women, sometimes in subtle ways.

From the early grades, girls are depicted nearly exclusively in traditional roles -- such as helping their mothers in the kitchen, taught in the pages of a third-grade Urdu textbook. Rarely are they described as playing sports or having professions -- and when they are, they appear as foreigners or non- Muslims, like ``Mrs. Brown,`` the airline hostess in the grade 8 English book.

Even famous Pakistani and/or Muslim women are cast in stereotypical roles. Fatima Jinnah, one of only a handful of women to appear in Urdu textbooks, is cited only for serving as the nurse and fervent supporter of her brother Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Fatima Jinnah, in fact, was a pioneer, beginning her adult life as a dentist who founded and ran her own clinic in Bombay before abandoning the profession in the 1930s to join her brother`s political fight. She set up the All India Muslim Women Students Federation in 1941 in Delhi and then formed the Women`s Relief Committee in 1947 (which eventually morphed into the All Pakistan Women`s Association, still active today). She later ran for president against Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1965.

Warped accounts of history and reverence for Muslim or military figures are drilled into students` heads -- a holdover from the need after the 1947 partition to create a vision of Pakistan as a nation separate from India. The vision was then further refined by successive governments for their own political goals -- especially the military, which has ruled by force for 30 of Pakistan`s 55 years of existence.

Salim says: ``Throughout the formative years, children are presented with pious glorious images of the military and given numerous glorified accounts of military heroics and the respect that gains. If a child learns that violence is a positive attribute, then that child is more likely to resort to violent means in situations that don`t justify the action.``

Textbook depictions of the subcontinent`s bloody partition, a time when 1 million people lost their lives through atrocities by both Hindu and Muslim militants, are one-sided.

A passage in the fourth-grade social studies book stresses the agony of Muslims making their way to Pakistan while glossing over the price paid by others:

``They came . . . leaving their homes, shops, agricultural, goods and beasts in India. On their way to Pakistan, a large number of immigrants were killed by the Sikhs and Hindus. They suffered a lot during their journey. At that time Sikhs and Hindus as well left Pakistan for India.``

There were, in fact, enough atrocities to go around, and the textbooks omit a two-month rampage in the Pakistani military city of Rawalpindi that saw thousands of non-Muslims beaten, killed or maimed.

For most older Pakistanis, last year`s riots in Gujarat, India, during which mobs of Hindus hunted down Muslims after militant Muslims torched a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, were a lamentable continuation of post- partition scarring. But students see the event as course work come to life.

``It`s plain to see the Hindus can murder women and children and go unpunished, but when the Muslims stand for themselves in India, they are called terrorists,`` said teenager Khan.

School Principal Raifakat Hussein says that the curriculum`s selective history prevents a proper understanding of events and does little to encourage self-criticism and analysis among the younger generations.

``Children need to learn the truth about the history of their country, society and government -- even if it`s not all pretty and neat,`` said Hussein, who oversees the Montessori Primary School in the eastern city of Lahore.

Educators, psychologists, lawyers and minority representatives joined with the SPDI to study the current curriculum after its revision this spring by the Musharraf government -- which included improvements in English grammar sections, and the slight toning down of the glorification of holy war and dismissive references to non-Muslims.

Classroom priorities are centralized under the command of the Education Ministry`s Curriculum Wing.

``We are constantly looking at ways to revise, reorder and update,`` contended Haroona Jetoi, joint education secretary of the Curriculum Wing. ``Where there are problems they are addressed, and will continue to be.``

But participants in the study call the recent curriculum changes ``poorly defined alterations`` unlikely to filter down into a mass revision of textbooks.

``Historical inaccuracies, omissions and incitement to violence remain key features,`` said Salim.

Some government and education officials quietly admit that most textbooks remain the same, and that many provincial-level education officials are lax or content with the status quo.

There are no plans on the table for further curriculum changes in the next five years.

And therein lies great danger, educators say.

``Children are impressionable -- they are molded by what they are taught,`` said principal Hussein. ``If they learn intolerance and hatred at a young age, it will stay with them their whole lives.

``If we are seriously talking about peace with India, modernization and being part of the global community, how can teaching our children to hate be compatible with those goals?``

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/30/MN241108.DTL


Page A - 11

How Would Gandhi Answer This Attack? Hatred of India springs from school texts in Pakistan

Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Wednesday, July 30, 2003

---

San Francisco Chronicle

Islamabad, Pakistan -- Sohail Khan thinks he knows all he needs to know when it comes to Pakistan`s larger, predominantly Hindu neighbor, India.

``Hindus cannot be trusted,`` the 15-year-old said firmly. ``Since the day Pakistan got independence, India has been trying to destroy us any way they can with the help of other infidel nations.``

Dismissing renewed efforts by both countries to reconcile their bitter and bloody 55-year-long rivalry, he insisted, ``Talk of peace hides a different plan that only they know.``

Young Khan`s harsh words -- echoed widely in varying degrees by Pakistanis across the social and political spectrum -- are hardly surprising, because they are the product of a government-endorsed curriculum taught in public schools around the country.

Pakistan`s madrassa (religious school) system, where ultra-conservative Muslim clerics dole out an excruciatingly narrow world view, has achieved global notoriety for producing thousands of young men dedicated to holy war. But the public school curriculum weaves in many similar concepts -- including insensitivity to other religions, militancy and the glorification of war.

``Honestly speaking, there should be less fear of madrassa curricula, which is comparatively limited in scope, and more fear of the books being used in public schools,`` said Ahmed Salim, director of Urdu publications at Islamabad`s Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SPDI).

``While President (Pervez) Musharraf has spoken passionately about the goal of a modern, tolerant, progressive Pakistan, the curriculum used is serving exactly the opposite purpose and will reflect upon his policies badly,`` Salim said

Public school textbooks are replete with examples.

A Muslim chauvinist view dominates the curriculum, and knowledge of Islam and the Koran is compulsory, even for non-Muslim students.

Social studies teachers in grades 1 through 5 are ordered to include units each year that instruct students in the concept and importance of jihad (holy war), and even require youngsters to deliver speeches on the subject.

The 10th-grade Pakistan studies textbook minces no words in its endorsement of Islam:

``A good person is one who leads his life according to the teachings of Allah and the Holy Prophet. He is pious and virtuous. He follows the principles and teachings of Islam individually and collectively and makes an effort to promote them. According to the teachings of Islam, a person who follows the right path is distinguished from others.``

Intolerance toward other religions is often stated unequivocally.

``Hindu has always been the enemy of Islam,`` according to the fifth-grade Urdu textbook.

The sixth-grade social studies book, chapter 5, tells of how higher-caste Hindus have abused humanity by crushing the lower castes, and how Buddhism was eventually corrupted after it arose to challenge Hinduism. One sentence declares: ``Islam preached equality, brotherhood and fraternity. The foundation of Hindu (society) was formed on injustice and cruelty.``

The curriculum also stresses male superiority over women, sometimes in subtle ways.

From the early grades, girls are depicted nearly exclusively in traditional roles -- such as helping their mothers in the kitchen, taught in the pages of a third-grade Urdu textbook. Rarely are they described as playing sports or having professions -- and when they are, they appear as foreigners or non- Muslims, like ``Mrs. Brown,`` the airline hostess in the grade 8 English book.

Even famous Pakistani and/or Muslim women are cast in stereotypical roles. Fatima Jinnah, one of only a handful of women to appear in Urdu textbooks, is cited only for serving as the nurse and fervent supporter of her brother Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Fatima Jinnah, in fact, was a pioneer, beginning her adult life as a dentist who founded and ran her own clinic in Bombay before abandoning the profession in the 1930s to join her brother`s political fight. She set up the All India Muslim Women Students Federation in 1941 in Delhi and then formed the Women`s Relief Committee in 1947 (which eventually morphed into the All Pakistan Women`s Association, still active today). She later ran for president against Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1965.

Warped accounts of history and reverence for Muslim or military figures are drilled into students` heads -- a holdover from the need after the 1947 partition to create a vision of Pakistan as a nation separate from India. The vision was then further refined by successive governments for their own political goals -- especially the military, which has ruled by force for 30 of Pakistan`s 55 years of existence.

Salim says: ``Throughout the formative years, children are presented with pious glorious images of the military and given numerous glorified accounts of military heroics and the respect that gains. If a child learns that violence is a positive attribute, then that child is more likely to resort to violent means in situations that don`t justify the action.``

Textbook depictions of the subcontinent`s bloody partition, a time when 1 million people lost their lives through atrocities by both Hindu and Muslim militants, are one-sided.

A passage in the fourth-grade social studies book stresses the agony of Muslims making their way to Pakistan while glossing over the price paid by others:

``They came . . . leaving their homes, shops, agricultural, goods and beasts in India. On their way to Pakistan, a large number of immigrants were killed by the Sikhs and Hindus. They suffered a lot during their journey. At that time Sikhs and Hindus as well left Pakistan for India.``

There were, in fact, enough atrocities to go around, and the textbooks omit a two-month rampage in the Pakistani military city of Rawalpindi that saw thousands of non-Muslims beaten, killed or maimed.

For most older Pakistanis, last year`s riots in Gujarat, India, during which mobs of Hindus hunted down Muslims after militant Muslims torched a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, were a lamentable continuation of post- partition scarring. But students see the event as course work come to life.

``It`s plain to see the Hindus can murder women and children and go unpunished, but when the Muslims stand for themselves in India, they are called terrorists,`` said teenager Khan.

School Principal Raifakat Hussein says that the curriculum`s selective history prevents a proper understanding of events and does little to encourage self-criticism and analysis among the younger generations.

``Children need to learn the truth about the history of their country, society and government -- even if it`s not all pretty and neat,`` said Hussein, who oversees the Montessori Primary School in the eastern city of Lahore.

Educators, psychologists, lawyers and minority representatives joined with the SPDI to study the current curriculum after its revision this spring by the Musharraf government -- which included improvements in English grammar sections, and the slight toning down of the glorification of holy war and dismissive references to non-Muslims.

Classroom priorities are centralized under the command of the Education Ministry`s Curriculum Wing.

``We are constantly looking at ways to revise, reorder and update,`` contended Haroona Jetoi, joint education secretary of the Curriculum Wing. ``Where there are problems they are addressed, and will continue to be.``

But participants in the study call the recent curriculum changes ``poorly defined alterations`` unlikely to filter down into a mass revision of textbooks.

``Historical inaccuracies, omissions and incitement to violence remain key features,`` said Salim.

Some government and education officials quietly admit that most textbooks remain the same, and that many provincial-level education officials are lax or content with the status quo.

There are no plans on the table for further curriculum changes in the next five years.

And therein lies great danger, educators say.

``Children are impressionable -- they are molded by what they are taught,`` said principal Hussein. ``If they learn intolerance and hatred at a young age, it will stay with them their whole lives.

``If we are seriously talking about peace with India, modernization and being part of the global community, how can teaching our children to hate be compatible with those goals?``

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/30/MN241108.DTL


Page A - 11

This Beloved Arab Colony Hatred of India springs from school texts in Pakistan

Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Wednesday, July 30, 2003

---

San Francisco Chronicle

Islamabad, Pakistan -- Sohail Khan thinks he knows all he needs to know when it comes to Pakistan`s larger, predominantly Hindu neighbor, India.

``Hindus cannot be trusted,`` the 15-year-old said firmly. ``Since the day Pakistan got independence, India has been trying to destroy us any way they can with the help of other infidel nations.``

Dismissing renewed efforts by both countries to reconcile their bitter and bloody 55-year-long rivalry, he insisted, ``Talk of peace hides a different plan that only they know.``

Young Khan`s harsh words -- echoed widely in varying degrees by Pakistanis across the social and political spectrum -- are hardly surprising, because they are the product of a government-endorsed curriculum taught in public schools around the country.

Pakistan`s madrassa (religious school) system, where ultra-conservative Muslim clerics dole out an excruciatingly narrow world view, has achieved global notoriety for producing thousands of young men dedicated to holy war. But the public school curriculum weaves in many similar concepts -- including insensitivity to other religions, militancy and the glorification of war.

``Honestly speaking, there should be less fear of madrassa curricula, which is comparatively limited in scope, and more fear of the books being used in public schools,`` said Ahmed Salim, director of Urdu publications at Islamabad`s Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SPDI).

``While President (Pervez) Musharraf has spoken passionately about the goal of a modern, tolerant, progressive Pakistan, the curriculum used is serving exactly the opposite purpose and will reflect upon his policies badly,`` Salim said

Public school textbooks are replete with examples.

A Muslim chauvinist view dominates the curriculum, and knowledge of Islam and the Koran is compulsory, even for non-Muslim students.

Social studies teachers in grades 1 through 5 are ordered to include units each year that instruct students in the concept and importance of jihad (holy war), and even require youngsters to deliver speeches on the subject.

The 10th-grade Pakistan studies textbook minces no words in its endorsement of Islam:

``A good person is one who leads his life according to the teachings of Allah and the Holy Prophet. He is pious and virtuous. He follows the principles and teachings of Islam individually and collectively and makes an effort to promote them. According to the teachings of Islam, a person who follows the right path is distinguished from others.``

Intolerance toward other religions is often stated unequivocally.

``Hindu has always been the enemy of Islam,`` according to the fifth-grade Urdu textbook.

The sixth-grade social studies book, chapter 5, tells of how higher-caste Hindus have abused humanity by crushing the lower castes, and how Buddhism was eventually corrupted after it arose to challenge Hinduism. One sentence declares: ``Islam preached equality, brotherhood and fraternity. The foundation of Hindu (society) was formed on injustice and cruelty.``

The curriculum also stresses male superiority over women, sometimes in subtle ways.

From the early grades, girls are depicted nearly exclusively in traditional roles -- such as helping their mothers in the kitchen, taught in the pages of a third-grade Urdu textbook. Rarely are they described as playing sports or having professions -- and when they are, they appear as foreigners or non- Muslims, like ``Mrs. Brown,`` the airline hostess in the grade 8 English book.

Even famous Pakistani and/or Muslim women are cast in stereotypical roles. Fatima Jinnah, one of only a handful of women to appear in Urdu textbooks, is cited only for serving as the nurse and fervent supporter of her brother Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Fatima Jinnah, in fact, was a pioneer, beginning her adult life as a dentist who founded and ran her own clinic in Bombay before abandoning the profession in the 1930s to join her brother`s political fight. She set up the All India Muslim Women Students Federation in 1941 in Delhi and then formed the Women`s Relief Committee in 1947 (which eventually morphed into the All Pakistan Women`s Association, still active today). She later ran for president against Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1965.

Warped accounts of history and reverence for Muslim or military figures are drilled into students` heads -- a holdover from the need after the 1947 partition to create a vision of Pakistan as a nation separate from India. The vision was then further refined by successive governments for their own political goals -- especially the military, which has ruled by force for 30 of Pakistan`s 55 years of existence.

Salim says: ``Throughout the formative years, children are presented with pious glorious images of the military and given numerous glorified accounts of military heroics and the respect that gains. If a child learns that violence is a positive attribute, then that child is more likely to resort to violent means in situations that don`t justify the action.``

Textbook depictions of the subcontinent`s bloody partition, a time when 1 million people lost their lives through atrocities by both Hindu and Muslim militants, are one-sided.

A passage in the fourth-grade social studies book stresses the agony of Muslims making their way to Pakistan while glossing over the price paid by others:

``They came . . . leaving their homes, shops, agricultural, goods and beasts in India. On their way to Pakistan, a large number of immigrants were killed by the Sikhs and Hindus. They suffered a lot during their journey. At that time Sikhs and Hindus as well left Pakistan for India.``

There were, in fact, enough atrocities to go around, and the textbooks omit a two-month rampage in the Pakistani military city of Rawalpindi that saw thousands of non-Muslims beaten, killed or maimed.

For most older Pakistanis, last year`s riots in Gujarat, India, during which mobs of Hindus hunted down Muslims after militant Muslims torched a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, were a lamentable continuation of post- partition scarring. But students see the event as course work come to life.

``It`s plain to see the Hindus can murder women and children and go unpunished, but when the Muslims stand for themselves in India, they are called terrorists,`` said teenager Khan.

School Principal Raifakat Hussein says that the curriculum`s selective history prevents a proper understanding of events and does little to encourage self-criticism and analysis among the younger generations.

``Children need to learn the truth about the history of their country, society and government -- even if it`s not all pretty and neat,`` said Hussein, who oversees the Montessori Primary School in the eastern city of Lahore.

Educators, psychologists, lawyers and minority representatives joined with the SPDI to study the current curriculum after its revision this spring by the Musharraf government -- which included improvements in English grammar sections, and the slight toning down of the glorification of holy war and dismissive references to non-Muslims.

Classroom priorities are centralized under the command of the Education Ministry`s Curriculum Wing.

``We are constantly looking at ways to revise, reorder and update,`` contended Haroona Jetoi, joint education secretary of the Curriculum Wing. ``Where there are problems they are addressed, and will continue to be.``

But participants in the study call the recent curriculum changes ``poorly defined alterations`` unlikely to filter down into a mass revision of textbooks.

``Historical inaccuracies, omissions and incitement to violence remain key features,`` said Salim.

Some government and education officials quietly admit that most textbooks remain the same, and that many provincial-level education officials are lax or content with the status quo.

There are no plans on the table for further curriculum changes in the next five years.

And therein lies great danger, educators say.

``Children are impressionable -- they are molded by what they are taught,`` said principal Hussein. ``If they learn intolerance and hatred at a young age, it will stay with them their whole lives.

``If we are seriously talking about peace with India, modernization and being part of the global community, how can teaching our children to hate be compatible with those goals?``

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/30/MN241108.DTL


Page A - 11