US Supported Extremist Curriculum in Madrassas

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Much has been discussed about the content of Pakistani text books - this thread is meant to highlight the role the US played in promoting the very kind of extremist curriculum that is criticized today:

US paying price of backing Islamic militants: Pak Prof​

Shyam Bhatia in London

The role of the US in “fanning Islamic militancy” has been highlighted by a visiting Pakistani professor who was the star performer at a seminar sponsored by The Democracy Forum in London.

Nuclear physicist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, from Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, was a keynote speaker at the seminar entitled ‘The role of education in combating terrorism’. In his view, the US has played a major role in contributing to the Islamic radicalisation that currently prevails in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

His views were spelt out at the well attended function, chaired by Dr William Crawley of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and addressed by The Democracy Forum head and British Conservative MP Stephen Hammond. Other participants included Professor Jack Spence from King’s

College, London, Shiraz Maher from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, Mushtak Parker, Editor of Islamic Banker magazine and retired ambassador and visiting professor at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi G Parthasarathy. The seminar was brought to a close by retired British Crown Court Judge Sir Mota Singh.

In his speech, Hoodbhoy started by commenting on the changes to the education curriculum in Pakistani schools, quoting from a 1995 primary education document published by Pakistan’s Ministry of Education.

The document states that after the completion of Class V, all children should be able to “understand Hindu Muslim differences and the resultant need for Pakistan”. “Children should be also able to understand India’s evil design against Pakistan,” it further says.

Other requirements for Class V graduates are to “acknowledge and identify forces that may be working against Pakistan” and to “make speeches on Jehad and Shahidat”.

At least as important, according to Hoodbhoy, was the earlier meddling of US government agencies like USAID and the CIA, encouraging Islamic radicalisation which shaped the world view of both young Pakistanis and their Afghan counterparts.

The US role in this process is especially relevant today as the Taliban stage a comeback in parts of Afghanistan in anticipation of the American pullback from the country in 2014. Squads of Taliban-backed morality police are active in provinces like Nuristan where they mete out Draconian punishments to anyone who watches television, listens to music or participates in any other types of activity deemed to be un-Islamic.

Back in the 1980s, the US government spent millions of dollars to produce educational textbooks for Afghan refugee children that were filled with violent images and militant teachings from the Koran.

Published by the University of Nebraska in the US, these textbooks were subsequently exported to the madrassas (schools) operating along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

“They distributed millions of Korans to madrassas with the aim of fanning radicalism,” Hoodbhoy explained. “It was viewed as the most efficient way of fighting the Soviet Union by putting this across as a religious war. The policy was evolved between the US and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia was the funder. But it was very close consultation between General Zia (Pakistan’s late president) and the CIA which conducted the biggest covert war in history (against the Soviet Union.)”

At the time, President Bush explained that some 10 million US-supplied books intended for Afghan school children would teach “respect for human dignity, instead of indoctrinating students with fanaticism and bigotry.”

Yet, the content in one of the mathematics textbooks written in Dari and Pushtu, read out by Hoodbhoy, included the following:

“One group of Mujahed attacks 50 Russian soldiers. In that attack, 20 Russians were killed. How many Russians fled?"

Another mathematics problem states: “A Kalashnikov bullet travels at 800 metres per second. A Mujahed has the forehead of a Russian in his sights 3,200 metres away. How many seconds will it take the bullet to hit the Russian’s forehead?”

Still another textbook publishes a verse from the Koran, followed by a tribute to the Mujahideen who are described as obedient to Allah and willing to sacrifice their wealth and life to impose Islamic law on the government.

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Main News

 

[bouncing betty]

...
“They distributed millions of Korans to madrassas with the aim of fanning radicalism,” ...

So your saying KORANS FAN RADICALISM ? AH-HA !!! Just as I suspected... As for the rest of the 'article', I CALL B.S. !!!

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

So your saying KORANS FAN RADICALISM ? AH-HA !!! Just as I suspected... As for the rest of the 'article', I CALL B.S. !!!

No, the Quran does not fan radicalism on its own, much as the violence in the Bible does not fan radicalism on its own - the argument being made is that the US Government deliberately funded and supported (along with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia) the overall curriculum and goals of these Madrassas while supporting an insurgency against Soviet troops in Afghanistan, and it was these very madrassas that spawned the Al Qaeda's, Taliban and TTP of today.

And you can call 'BS' all you want, but given the credentials of the Professor making these claims (he is a vociferous critic of Pakistan's nuclear program, its military spending, and Pakistan's religion based constitution and school curriculum), without some credible counter argument/facts illustrating his arguments as BS, your 'call' carries not weight.

 

[pakdefender]

So your saying KORANS FAN RADICALISM ? AH-HA !!! Just as I suspected... As for the rest of the 'article', I CALL B.S. !!!

The Professor who actually put together the curriculum based on grants from the CIA is still there in the University of Nebraska, his name is Dr. Thomas E. Gouttierre , before calling the article BS you need to check up what your government has been up to instead of just re-enforcing the stereotype of the uninformed ugly american

University of Nebraska Administration - Thomas E. Gouttierre

Thomas Gouttierre

1984-1994: CIA Funds Militant Textbooks for Afghanistan The US, through USAID and the University of Nebraska, spends millions of dollars developing and printing textbooks for Afghan schoolchildren. The textbooks are “filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur resistance to the Soviet occupation.” For instance, children are “taught to count with illustrations showing tanks, missiles, and land mines.” Lacking any alternative, millions of these textbooks are used long after 1994; the Taliban will still be using them in 2001. In 2002, the US will start producing less violent versions of the same books, which President Bush says will have “respect for human dignity, instead of indoctrinating students with fanaticism and bigotry.” (He will fail to mention who created those earlier books.) [Washington Post, 3/23/2002; Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 5/6/2002] A University of Nebraska academic named Thomas Gouttierre leads the textbook program. Journalist Robert Dreyfuss will later reveal that although funding for Gouttierre’s work went through USAID, it was actually paid for by the CIA. Unocal will pay Gouttierre to work with the Taliban (see December 1997) and he will host visits of Taliban leaders to the US, including trips in 1997 and 1999 (see December 4, 1997 and July-August 1999). [Dreyfuss, 2005, pp. 328]
Entity Tags: USAID, University of Nebraska, Taliban, George W. Bush, Thomas Gouttierre, Central Intelligence Agency
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, Domestic Propaganda, War in Afghanistan

 

[Redbull]

I hope the Afghanis will stop blaming us now.
Hoodbhoy does speak the truth once in a while, he's still a liberal scum though.

 

[regular]

So your saying KORANS FAN RADICALISM ? AH-HA !!! Just as I suspected... As for the rest of the 'article', I CALL B.S. !!!

I guess U got problem in ure mind the Holy books never teaches about radicalism but obedience and respect for the Gold Almighty-Allah the creator of the Universe...it teaches the respect for the fellow beings and to refrain from any kind of destruction to his creations......umm.....

 

[EjazR]

This is a well known issue. Here is a WaPo article from 2002

From U.S., the ABC's of Jihad

In the twilight of the Cold War, the United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur resistance to the Soviet occupation.

The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books, though the radical movement scratched out human faces in keeping with its strict fundamentalist code.

As Afghan schools reopen today, the United States is back in the business of providing schoolbooks. But now it is wrestling with the unintended consequences of its successful strategy of stirring Islamic fervor to fight communism. What seemed like a good idea in the context of the Cold War is being criticized by humanitarian workers as a crude tool that steeped a generation in violence.

Last month, a U.S. foreign aid official said, workers launched a "scrubbing" operation in neighboring Pakistan to purge from the books all references to rifles and killing. Many of the 4 million texts being trucked into Afghanistan, and millions more on the way, still feature Koranic verses and teach Muslim tenets.

The White House defends the religious content, saying that Islamic principles permeate Afghan culture and that the books "are fully in compliance with U.S. law and policy." Legal experts, however, question whether the books violate a constitutional ban on using tax dollars to promote religion.

Organizations accepting funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development must certify that tax dollars will not be used to advance religion. The certification states that AID "will finance only programs that have a secular purpose. . . . AID-financed activities cannot result in religious indoctrination of the ultimate beneficiaries."

The issue of textbook content reflects growing concern among U.S. policymakers about school teachings in some Muslim countries in which Islamic militancy and anti-Americanism are on the rise. A number of government agencies are discussing what can be done to counter these trends.

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush have repeatedly spotlighted the Afghan textbooks in recent weeks. Last Saturday, Bush announced during his weekly radio address that the 10 million U.S.-supplied books being trucked to Afghan schools would teach "respect for human dignity, instead of indoctrinating students with fanaticism and bigotry."

The first lady stood alongside Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai on Jan. 29 to announce that AID would give the University of Nebraska at Omaha $6.5 million to provide textbooks and teacher training kits.

AID officials said in interviews that they left the Islamic materials intact because they feared Afghan educators would reject books lacking a strong dose of Muslim thought. The agency removed its logo and any mention of the U.S. government from the religious texts, AID spokeswoman Kathryn Stratos said.

"It's not AID's policy to support religious instruction," Stratos said. "But we went ahead with this project because the primary purpose . . . is to educate children, which is predominantly a secular activity."

Some legal experts disagreed. A 1991 federal appeals court ruling against AID's former director established that taxpayers' funds may not pay for religious instruction overseas, said Herman Schwartz, a constitutional law expert at American University, who litigated the case for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ayesha Khan, legal director of the nonprofit Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the White House has "not a legal leg to stand on" in distributing the books.

"Taxpayer dollars cannot be used to supply materials that are religious," she said.

Published in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtu, the textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under an AID grant to the University of Nebraska-Omaha and its Center for Afghanistan Studies. The agency spent $51 million on the university's education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994.

During that time of Soviet occupation, regional military leaders in Afghanistan helped the U.S. smuggle books into the country. They demanded that the primers contain anti-Soviet passages. Children were taught to count with illustrations showing tanks, missiles and land mines, agency officials said. They acknowledged that at the time it also suited U.S. interests to stoke hatred of foreign invaders.

"I think we were perfectly happy to see these books trashing the Soviet Union," said Chris Brown, head of book revision for AID's Central Asia Task Force.

AID dropped funding of Afghan programs in 1994. But the textbooks continued to circulate in various versions, even after the Taliban seized power in 1996.

Officials said private humanitarian groups paid for continued reprintings during the Taliban years. Today, the books remain widely available in schools and shops, to the chagrin of international aid workers.

"The pictures [in] the texts are horrendous to school students, but the texts are even much worse," said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, an Afghan educator who is a program coordinator for Cooperation for Peace and Unity, a Pakistan-based nonprofit.

An aid worker in the region reviewed an unrevised 100-page book and counted 43 pages containing violent images or passages.

The military content was included to "stimulate resistance against invasion," explained Yaquib Roshan of Nebraska's Afghanistan center. "Even in January, the books were absolutely the same . . . pictures of bullets and Kalashnikovs and you name it."

During the Taliban era, censors purged human images from the books. One page from the texts of that period shows a resistance fighter with a bandolier and a Kalashnikov slung from his shoulder. The soldier's head is missing.

Above the soldier is a verse from the Koran. Below is a Pashtu tribute to the mujaheddin, who are described as obedient to Allah. Such men will sacrifice their wealth and life itself to impose Islamic law on the government, the text says.

"We were quite shocked," said Doug Pritchard, who reviewed the primers in December while visiting Pakistan on behalf of a Canada-based Christian nonprofit group. "The constant image of Afghans being natural warriors is wrong. Warriors are created. If you want a different kind of society, you have to create it."

After the United States launched a military campaign last year, the United Nations' education agency, UNICEF, began preparing to reopen Afghanistan's schools, using new books developed with 70 Afghan educators and 24 private aid groups. In early January, UNICEF began printing new texts for many subjects but arranged to supply copies of the old, unrevised U.S. books for other subjects, including Islamic instruction.

Within days, the Afghan interim government announced that it would use the old AID-produced texts for its core school curriculum. UNICEF's new texts could be used only as supplements.

Earlier this year, the United States tapped into its $296 million aid package for rebuilding Afghanistan to reprint the old books, but decided to purge the violent references.

About 18 of the 200 titles the United States is republishing are primarily Islamic instructional books, which agency officials refer to as "civics" courses. Some books teach how to live according to the Koran, Brown said, and "how to be a good Muslim."

UNICEF is left with 500,000 copies of the old "militarized" books, a $200,000 investment that it has decided to destroy, according to U.N. officials.

On Feb. 4, Brown arrived in Peshawar, the Pakistani border town in which the textbooks were to be printed, to oversee hasty revisions to the printing plates. Ten Afghan educators labored night and day, scrambling to replace rough drawings of weapons with sketches of pomegranates and oranges, Brown said.

"We turned it from a wartime curriculum to a peacetime curriculum," he said.