[Reader-list] Pakistani Texbooks - Teaching Hate

[Kshmendra Kaul]

A connected follow up comment received by me:
 
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THE WASHINGTON POST
Letters to the Editor
 
Pakistan turns its back on its founder's vision


Saturday, July 10, 2010; A12
 
I read with great interest the July 4 Outlook commentary "Dreams from two founding fathers" by Akbar Ahmed, comparing Pakistan's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, with Thomas Jefferson. Unfortunately, the writer missed a key point: Individuals, no matter how great they may have been during their lives, in the end are only as good as their legacies.
 
The story that Mr. Ahmed ignored is that while we in the United States live Jefferson's dream every day, Pakistan stands as a repudiation of everything Jinnah believed in. Official state institutions and most Pakistanis have turned their backs on Jinnah's legacy. 
 
Jinnah's vision was that of a secular Pakistan where religious tolerance and plurality would be respected and observed without reservation. Today's Pakistan, where Hindu and Sikh minorities are on the verge of oblivion, where certain Muslim faithful are officially designated as heretics, where civil wars are raging between Shiites and Sunnis and between Islamists and Sufis, is a cruel reminder of how far the country has veered from its founder's vision. 
 
I have a personal stake in hoping and praying that Pakistan will someday rediscover the vision of its founder. My family, belonging to the non-Muslim minority in Kashmir, was driven out by Pakistani-armed mujaheddin in 1990, fresh from their victory in Afghanistan.
 
Ever since, Pakistan has been in the news, slowly devouring Jinnah's legacy from within.
 
Vijay Sazawal, Darnestown 
www.kashmirforum.org
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The reffered to Washington Post article by Akbar Ahmed "Thomas Jefferson and Mohammed Ali Jinnah: Dreams from two founding fathers" is at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/02/AR2010070202442.html
 
Kshmendra


--- On Sun, 7/11/10, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:


From: Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Reader-list] Pakistani Texbooks - Teaching Hate
To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Date: Sunday, July 11, 2010, 6:23 PM


In his latest article Dr Farrukh Saleem writes:
 
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Next. Just look at what we are teaching our kids at school. The official Curriculum Document, Primary Education, Class K-V, specifically prescribes "simple stories to urge jihad." Under "Activity 4," the prescription for three- and eight-year-old Pakistanis is "To make speeches on jihad and shahadat." 

Class VI students of social studies are taught that "the foundation of Hindu setup was based on injustice and cruelty." Social Studies students in Class VII are taught that "Europeans nations have been working during the past three centuries, through conspiracies or naked aggression, to subjugate the countries of the Muslim world." In Class VII we teach our kids that "Some Jewish tribes also lived in Arabia. They lent money to workers and peasants on high rates of interest and usurped earning. They held the whole society in their tight grip because of the ever-increasing compound interest." 
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http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=250142
 
 
Kshmendra



      
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