Radicalization of Pakistan began when Zia govt and CIA arm in arm used the Madrasas of NWFP to turn Afghans and Pakistanis into militants and extremists in their fight against soviets.....
Both govt provided arms to these folks and ingrained the idea of freedom through violence.....
So the process had its roots well before the WOT even began....
Now the point is, the tactics used to make an Afghan refugee Mujhideen were also used by Zia in Pakistan itself......
So a person studying in an A-level school probably had enough space to be liberal, but same cannot be said of the Govt. educated.....or those that attended Madrasas....
Yes, but 'Zia's radicalization and Pakistan's school system' do not factor into the equation of British born and raised citizens. These individuals are being raised in the British school system and in British society, and are being radicalized by extremists in Britain. Islamic radicalization was also occurring earlier than the Afghan Jihad in the Middle East, around the Palestinian occupation and perceived Western support for that occupation. In fact the radicalization during the Afghan Jihad owes itself to the ideology exported from some parts of the Arab world to the region, so it is unfair to point to Pakistan as the source of problems, especially when it comes to homegrown terrorists in Western nations.
Fast forward to post-9/11.....had the US not attacked, Afghanistan, the largely lawless region of NWFP which largely remained a hotbed for such fundamentalism would have continued to simmer in such volatile teachings.....Inevitably, this would have blown over to the rest of Pak as well....luckily Pakistan did get involved in the fight curbing the spread to a WOT as opposed to an Islamic Revolution similar to Iran.....
So to blame it solely on WOT is not accurate....especially in light of past faulty policies of the GOP and its dictators.....
I think the root of the problem was education....
Let me ask you something.....
What are the prospects for a Madrasa educated person in Pakistan?
What would or would not have happened in FATA (not Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - formerly NWFP - which is governed under the constitution unlike FATA) had the US not invaded is irrelevant and hypothetical to this discussion. What is very real and very emotional for many people are the civilian casualties, the invasion and the spike in terrorism. That cannot be brushed under the table, and one cannot just blame 'education' alone since many extremists are educated, and many of the homegrown extremists in the West (like the London attackers) are educated in the West, so blaming Pakistan's education system is only relevant in a discussion on Pakistan's social ills and extremism, not the West's.
As far as Madrassa education goes, depends on the Madrassa - some Madrassa's have reformed their curriculum and teach the sciences and mathematics, computer literacy etc. but a lot more needs to be done to bring them ALL on board to provide a modern education and to regulate what they do teach in terms of religious tolerance.
I never said it was a purely Pakistani phenomenon in the UK....though Pakistani youth in the UK are more susceptible to it......
They are not 'Pakistani' youth - they are British youth of Pakistani origin, educated and raised in Britain. Also, statements like 'Pakistani youth are more susceptible to extremism' is a generalization. Only a handful have actually taken that step out of a very large British population of Pakistani origin, and I would repeat my argument on that count that it is because of the perceived illegitimate invasion and war the West is waging next to Pakistan, and in some cases in Pakistan, that is the likely driving force behind those handful of cases.
