A new story about something we have noted here many times: Pakistan’s schools are “universities of jihad,” and the Pakistani government is disinclined to do anything about it. From the Press Trust of India:
NEW DELHI: It is not just in seminaries, jihad and shahadat (martyrdom) are keywords in the curriculum of primary schools in Pakistan and the Education Ministry endorses the importance of these words, a media report said.
“The official Curriculum Document, Primary Education, Class I-V specifically prescribes ‘simple stories to urge jihad ‘. Under Activity 4, the specific prescription for three and eight-year-old Pakistanis is: ‘To make speeches on jihad and shahadat ‘,” Pakistani weekly The Friday Times said in an article.
Shahadat, of course, is martyrdom: “Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain…” (Qur’an, Sura 9:111)
The article, entitled ‘An Endangered Species: Who is going to save the moderate Pakistanis’, says the National Curriculum of the Ministry for social studies for Classes I-V “formally endorses the following ‘learning outcome’: Recognise the importance of jihad in every sphere of life.”
Under the heading ‘Evaluation’, “the officially certified direction to teachers and textbook writers is: ‘to judge their spirits while making speeches on jihad, Muslim history and culture,” while the ‘affective objective’ is ‘Concepts of Ideology of Pakistan, Muslim Ummah and Jihad’….
The Friday Times said the National Bureau of Curriculum and Textbooks, in its social studies curriculum for Classes VI-VIII, gives similar recommendations for jihad, tableegh (proselytize) and shahadat.
Out of the 17.4 million primary students, four million entered middle school and are given further tutoring on jihad.
Of these four million, 1.6 million enter the high school where the Ministry sanctions the following “‘Learning Outcome: Must be aware of the blessings of jihad “, it said.
But surely they are just teaching jihad as a spiritual struggle, right? Nope:
“The Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education, more often than not, equates jihad with guerilla warfare. Our primary, middle and high school curricula continue to equate Pakistan, Islam and jihad. Our Ministry continues to inspire our children to become guerilla fighters,” the article said.