Indo-Western Agenda and Anti-extremism in Pakistan

  

Indo-Western lobbies in Pakistan are consistently criticizing  educational syllabi of common school systems so that educational syllabi may be changed to make them suited to Indo-Western interests. Indo-Western lobbies opine that present educational syllabi are a main cause of present state of extremism in Pakistan.  In other words, the history being taught to students in Pakistan leads to extremism in Pakistan; therefore changes in educational syllabi are required to remove extremism from Pakistan. The absurdity of this idea is more than obvious.

The extremism being witnessed in Pakistan is more of religious nature; this extremism has its roots in religious concepts not in the history. All extremist groups in Pakistan are either religious or racial groups. These extremist groups are busy in eliminating their fellow countrymen belonging to their opponent groups. It is funny to associate such extremist activities with prodigies performed by our heroes in the history. There is no point in alienating our children from our history under the pretension of removal of extremism from our society.

The extremism being mainly associated with religious beliefs has nothing to do with educational syllabi being taught in common schools in Pakistan because these common schools do not impart religious education at all.

However nefarious designs can be clearly seen working behind this move of changing educational syllabi in Pakistan. History always works as source of inspiration for the nation. An envious history, like one having by the Muslims, is not only invaluable legacy but also a great source of inspiration for the Muslims. To alienate Pakistani children from this great source of inspiration is a conspiracy for making Pakistan’s future generations a spineless nation which would have no ideals to rise up in the comity of nations, and which would have no resistance to stand up against injustice and exploitation meted out by other nations. No other type of Pakistani nation would serve Indo-Western interests in a better way than such a spineless Pakistani nation.

The best way to remove extremism from Pakistan is not to alienate Pakistani children from their heroes but to change negative attitude of religious cadres. Extremism is a religious issue and it needs to be tackled through religion.

Most of the religious conflicts prevailing among various Muslim groups are not based on contradictory beliefs; rather they are rooted in different beliefs held by these Muslim groups.  Two views are different views, if any one of the two may be adopted without negating or accepting the other one. Two views are contradictory views, if any one  of the two may NOT be   adopted without negating the other. This point has been elaborated in my article “ Khilafah and Imamah- not contradictory concepts”.  Our students may become able to differentiate between ‘Different’ and ‘Contradictory’ views by going through Quran and other religious scriptures with neutral minds; such a neutral mindsets may be developed, if students are able to read and understand Quran with their own independent mind without being biased due to their respective creeds. For this purpose, Quranic studies must be made compulsory part of educational syllabi of our common school systems so that students may have enough capability to read and understand Quran with neutral minds. 

Structural changes may also be brought about in the way religious education is imparted in Pakistan. Instead of separate chain of ‘madaras’ dedicated for every creed, common ‘madaras’ may be established where students of all creeds may be given religious education of their respective creeds. In such common ‘madaras’, all students should also be exposed to religious views nourished by other creeds as well. In this way religious students would be able to cultivate in themselves more critical and analytical approach which would go a long way in making them much more moderate and tolerant. Such an environment in religious ‘madaras’  would help a lot in mitigating severity of conflicts prevailing among various religious groups.

We may conclude that issue of extremism in Pakistan should not be made an excuse for foreign states to secure their own nefarious designs. We should hit right where the problem lies; extremism in Pakistan is mainly related to religious beliefs, not to history being taught to our children. Extremism in Pakistan has to be dealt with through tackling religious issues and religious thinking.