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Wikileaks:Saudi-funded Madrassas in Punjab providing recruits for militants

The modus operandi stated is talked about by everybody. The thing is Pakistan willing to cut this hydra down, if not number of Abottabads will be going on no doubt.
 
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Looks like Bryan Hunt just wanted to do some bla bla for saving his job otherwise he might be called to white house for question his activities. And he will lose his chance to enjoy lahori mujras if the white house finds he has no real work to do. So trumpetting the saudi, uae, islam, terrorist mix over and over like gola ganda wala is a recipe of job saving.

Saudi Arabia and Wahabi doctrine both condemn suicide bombing. Fatwas for ibn taymiyah call for taking strong positions in war to achieve matrydom rather than attacks though means of self destruction (suicide bombing)

There are only two countries in the world which have used suicide bombing and ardent supporters of it as tactical weapon. I will leave it on you to guess.

Al Khidmat is literally operated from the backyard of our house and while we have bought in many students from AJK and FATA, I tell you confidently that neither we recieive regular aid from KSA and UAE nor we teach any form of violence. Infact our last request to KSA for donation request of 10 corore were politely turned down as saudis refused cash donations instead the case was reffered to SPAPEV.

Saudi Public Assistance for Pakistan Earthquake Victims

I can confidently say that the author knows crack about Pakistani religio-social facbric.

Saudi Arabia and UAE did fund pakistani jehadi organisation in the past but then who didnt?
 
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Well, this ummah thinking is sucking our wealth and blood. Why everyone wants to fight the war in Pakistan. Once these arabs stop pumping money these pest will die. Saudis hate war against US on Pakistani ground. And our power hungry and money hungry mullah are totally obeying the order. Even now a very little work force left in middle east compare to 70s or 80s. Even they put sanction on Pakistani work force nothing would happened.
Thanks to Zia ul haq who raised the western giving slogan " pakistan islam ka qila" and we free fall in black hole of darkness and still falling.
 
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Umma countries giving nice lessons to foolish people living in our country, still beleiving they are our brothers & all those useless stuff. All that arab wahabi culture forced upon Pakistan since 90 has eaten our country like termite. I feel soo annoyingly angry that Pakistan is doing nothing to maintain its peace & security. The whole country looks like lawless Afghanistan or Somalia.
 
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Poverty does not breed extremism in Pakistan, study finds
Posted on May 22, 2011

By Rob Crilly

The study, conducted by researchers from prestigious American universities, found no link between poverty and support for militant groups.


The findings undermine a central pillar of the Conservative government’s radical new policy on aid, which will deliver almost £1.4bn to Pakistan over the next five years as part of a strategy to protect Britain from terrorist attack.

On Wednesday, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, spelled out the policy to a jeering audience of police officers, who face pay cuts while extra cash is earmarked for Pakistan.

“If you get aid right in certain parts of the world, such as Pakistan, it will reduce the possibility of terrorism on the streets of the UK,” she said.

Christine Fair, a South Asia expert at Georgetown University and one of the authors of the new paper, said there was no evidence for such sweeping assertions and that her study of 6,000 people suggested that poorer Pakistanis were actually less likely to support extremist groups than more affluent, better educated people.

“The terrorism literature has long held that poverty does not explain terrorism,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

“Yet despite what would be a fairly robust body of literature, both the British government and the American government, have put together this canard that we can buy our way out of terrorism by investing in education and so forth. We simply don’t find this.”

Andrew Mitchell, who became International Development Secretary last year, has repeatedly talked of putting national security at the heart of aid policy.

With domestic budgets being cut, the argument has been deployed to justify continuing to spend money overseas – even in Pakistan, a middle income country where few people pay tax and the government spends more than £4bn on its Army and nuclear arsenal each year.

In March, a review of British overseas declared, “Tackling extreme poverty in Pakistan will help make the UK safer,” as ministers announced they would more than double the amount of cash for the terrorist-hit country – to £446m in 2015, so long as certain benchmarks are met.

However, development agencies such as Oxfam have warned that such moves are wrongheaded and that money should be spent purely to help those in need – not to protect Britain.

The new research, the first of its kind and published by the Social Science Research Network, suggests the money will not even help make Britain more secure.

In an “endorsement experiment”, respondents were asked how much they supported different policies – the use of peace jirgas or reform of school curricula for example.

A test group was told the policies were connected with Kashmiri terror groups or the Afghan Taliban.

The difference between their responses and those of a control group, which was not told of any connection, was taken as a measure of support for the militant groups.

When compared with socio-economic indicators, the researchers found poorer people were less likely to support extremist politics.

The paper concluded that poorer people in Pakistan were more likely to be the victims of suicide bombings and other terror attacks, and therefore were more likely to have negative feelings towards militants.

“This does mean there aren’t good reasons to invest in education and poverty mitigation. There are perfectly good reasons to do that. But if you are doing it with the explicit goal of buying security at home, there is not a lot of evidence,” said Dr Fair.

“None at all.”

Andrew Mitchell, International Development Secretary, insisted that countries lacking education and mired in poverty were the least stable.

“Improving governance, security and the rule of law, matched with better opportunities in terms of education and jobs, means we are lifting people out of extreme poverty and addressing grievances that can lead people towards extremism,” he said.

“It is too narrow to consider this issue simply in terms of financial poverty and extremism. It is vital to consider a wider range of issues that can lead to instability and extremism, including local grievances and poor education.”

Courtesy: The Telegraph UK
 
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Individuals from S.Arbia and UAE are providing aid to our seminaries but the govts of these two countries are not involved in terror against Pakistan.
 
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taht's not what the wikileaks cables suggest -- anyway I do recall Musharraf tryijng to reason with the emerati and saying that it would while bombs go off in Karachi seemigly eveery other day, it would be bad for buisiness if the same started happening in the Emrates.

But please don't believe us or wikileaks -- arbis love pakistines.
 
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Honestly, not that surprised by the "leak". Common knowledge.
We should extend the same brotherly love to those who love us to bits.

I'm a bit of a conservative, but some things go too far.
 
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The Pakistani government was aware of a network of radical madrassas that were recruiting, indoctrinating, and training young boys and girls in Punjab province to fight with the Taliban and other terrorist groups, but failed to move against them, according to a leaked US State Department cable. The network of madrassas was receiving much of its funding from "missionary" and "Islamic charitable organizations" in Saudi Arabia.

The secret US diplomatic cable, dated Oct 13, 2008, and titled "Extremist recruitment on the rise in south Punjab madrassas," is one of thousands released by WikiLeaks and published at Dawn. The cable paints a disturbing picture of radical Islamic groups running rampant in the Pakistani province of Punjab, and a government unwilling or unable to stop the spread of terrorist groups that have been sowing havoc in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and beyond.

The cable was sparked by the US State Department's "Principal Officer's discussions with religious, political, and civil society leaders" during a visit to the southern Punjabi cities of Multan and Bahawalpur. Pakistani government officials and religious leaders described "a strengthening network of Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith/Salafi mosques and madrassas, which they claimed had grown exponentially since late 2005."

The network of radical mosques and madrassas was being funded by religious and nonprofit entities based in Saudi Arabia.


Officials estimated that about $100 million a year "was making its way to Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith/Salafi clerics in the region from 'missionary' and 'Islamic charitable' organizations in Saudi Arabia ," the cable states. A group of wealthy donors known as the Golden Chain based in the Persian Gulf continues to fund terrorist entities despite a supposed crackdown by Saudi and other Gulf nations.


Child recruits radicalized in hundreds of madrassas

The cable detained the recruitment process, which began with recruiters going to the homes of poor families in South Punjab. The target age of the recruits is between 8 and 15 (although 8- to 12-year-olds are preferred). Even daughters were recruited:

The local Deobandi or Ahl-e-Hadith/Salafi maulana will generally be introduced to the family through these organizations. He will work to convince the parents that their poverty is a direct result of their family's deviation from 'the true path of Islam' through 'idolatrous' worship at local Sufi shrines and/or with local Sufi Peers. The maulana suggests that the quickest way to return to 'favor' would be to devote the lives of one or two of their sons to Islam. The maulana will offer to educate these children at his madrassa and to find them employment in the service of Islam. The concept of 'martyrdom' is often discussed and the family is promised that if their sons are 'martyred' both the sons and the family will attain 'salvation' and the family will obtain God's favor in this life, as well. An immediate cash payment is finally made to the parents to compensate the family for its 'sacrifice' to Islam. Local sources claim that the current average rate is approximately Rps. 500,000 (approximately USD 6500) per son. A small number of Ahl-e-Hadith/Salafi clerics in Dera Ghazi Khan district are reportedly recruiting daughters as well.
The young jihadist recruits would then be sent to one of several hundred small madrassas dotting the South Punjab countryside, the cable continued. The children are "isolated" from their families and the outside world, and are "taught sectarian extremism, hatred for non-Muslims, and anti-Western/anti-Pakistan government philosophy."

"Locals were uncertain as to the exact number of madrassas used for this initial indoctrination purpose, although they believed that with the recent expansion, they could number up to 200," the cable said. "These madrassas are generally in isolated areas and are kept small enough (under 100 students) so as not to draw significant attention."



The Pakistanis told the US State Department official that three large radical madrassas were in operation and are used to funnel the recruits to "more established training camps" in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal areas. The larger complexes are located in the village of Ahmedpur East in Bahawalpur District; in the city of Bahawalpur; and in the city of Dera Ghazi Khan. The Bahawalpur complex is operated by Maulana Al Hajii, "a devotee of Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Maulana Masood Azhar."

"These sites were primarily used for indoctrination and very limited military/terrorist tactic training," the State cable said. "They claimed that following several months of indoctrination at these centers youth were generally sent on to more established training camps in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and then on to jihad either in FATA, NWFP [Northwest Frontier Province, now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa], or as suicide bombers in settled areas."





Pakistani government fails to act

Several Pakistani officials complained to the US State Department official that their government refused to take action against the terrorist groups despite promises to do so.

"The provincial and federal governments, while fully aware of the problem, appear to fear direct confrontation with these extremist groups," the cable said.

"Interlocutors repeatedly chastised the government for its failure to act decisively against indoctrination centers, extremist madrassas, or known prominent leaders such as Jaish-e-Mohammad's Masood Azhar," who is on the US and UN's lists of the known terrorists.

"One leading Sufi scholar and a Member of the Provincial Assembly informed Principal Officer that he had personally provided large amounts of information on the location of these centers, madrassas, and personalities to provincial and national leaders, as well as the local police," the cable said. "He was repeatedly told that 'plans' to deal with the threat were being 'evolved' but that direct confrontation was considered 'too dangerous.'"

Another local official claimed that the political climate in Pakistan led to an unwillingness to deal with the problem. "Neither the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz provincial [government] nor the Pakistan Peoples Party federal governments would take his requests seriously," the cable stated.

A prominent Sufi scholar, whose brother was the Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, observed that the "the bureaucracy in the Religious Affairs, Education, and Defense Ministries remained dominated by Zia-ul-Haq appointees who favored the Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith/Salafi religious philosophies." Zia-ul-Haq was President of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988 and pushed radical Islamic causes into the mainstream of Pakistani politics. "This bureaucracy, Qasmi claimed, had repeatedly blocked his brother's efforts to push policy in a different direction."



South Punjab has long been known to be an engine of jihad. In the summer of 2009, Newline published an article detailing the rapid expansion of madrassas in South Punjab and their importance in providing recruits to the Taliban, al Qaeda, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan. As many as 9,000 jihadists from South Punjab were estimated to be fighting in Afghanistan and South Waziristan alone.



Pakistan's initial response to accusations about the jihadist problem in the South Punjab was denial. Police and government officials claimed that there was no problem. But when reporters began to travel to South Punjab to document the problem, government officials responded by banning journalists and forcing them to obtain permission from the government.



"All foreign journalists are required to get permission from foreign affairs as well as from interior ministries for visiting any specific place especially in South Punjab," a senior officer of the Punjab government told PTI. The official claimed that journalists were publishing "twisted and unfounded" facts. A local police chief expressed outrage when a British television channel showed footage of a religious school run by Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar.
 
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I think USA should now attack on Saudi Arabia.. and for the heck of it.. throw some bombs on Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qattar and UAE for good measures.. cuz it seems other then USA and Europe, all the countries are "terrorists"..
 
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I think USA should now attack on Saudi Arabia -
Preposterous. The Saudis and Chinese practically own the U.S., we can't make a military move any where without consulting them, lest they dump U.S. assets or currency.
 
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Preposterous. The Saudis and Chinese practically own the U.S., we can't make a military move any where without consulting them, lest they dump U.S. assets or currency.

Just deny that you owe anything to them.. or just bomb them flat.. if there is no one to claim, there is no one to blame innih?.. besides, you'll get control over Saudi oil also.. think about it..

All debt paid..
Removal of Kingdom and support of democracy..
People will be free from dictatorship..
Future oil production for and by USA.. good for the economy..
Control over center of Muslim world, that will make Islam moderate..

These are all USA slogans for previous wars isn't it?
 
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