Washington Pledges $100 Million Grant To Combat Jihadist Sentiments Among Schoolchildren

by admin
December 2nd, 2006

The US will teach Pakistan some lessons soon. No, not the kind critics say Pakistan deserves to be taught for being the hotbed of world terrorism. The new lessons Washington has in mind are aimed at changing Pakistan’s jihadist orientation through infusion of cash and rewriting of curriculum.Under a $100 million education grant for 2007 in addition to $200 million already disbursed for the purpose since 2002 — Washington has pledged to “expand educational opportunities… and create new prospects for economic growth” for Pakistan by way of greater academic exchanges between the two countries.

A joint statement issued following the first ever US-Pakistan Education Dialogue held this week says the two sides will collaborate closely on education exchange for workforce development and promote faculty, teacher, and student exchanges, ostensibly as part of a grand US plan to overhaul a system that has produced virulent anti-American sentiments despite billions of dollars in aid over half a century. The statement made no mention of addressing the warped and militarised curriculum full of falsehoods that is taught in Pakistan, including promoting hatred of Jews and Hindus. But the sub-text is unmistakable.

The agreement involves regular exchanges between the two sides, teacher training programs and “improvement of secondary-level science and math studies”.The US initiative comes despite broad indications that a Western system of education is not sufficient to overturn the jihadist or anti-Western orientation of Islamicists, angry at real and perceived injustice at the hands of the West. hijackers had advanced degrees and even studied in the West.

Mohammed Atta, the lead pilot , had a degree in architecture from Cairo University, was a student of urban planning at the Technical University in Hamburg. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Pakistani mastermind , earned a degree in mechanical engineering from a North Carolina university.But the Bush administration apparently saw merit in the arguments of Pakistan’s dictator Pervez Musharraf that his heavily militarised country did not have sufficient resources for education. Musharraf also claimed that Pakistani youth felt discriminated against in the aftermath of, although critic said his military’s policy of promoting jihadism had much to do with it.

Horror stories abound of young Pakistanis being subjected to ethnic and religious profiling in the US on account of the image of Pakistan in the West as a country that promotes and harbours terrorists. Almost all major terrorist activity in the world over the past 15 years have a Pakistani connection.This is not the first time the U.S is trying to get a handle on the education system in the region. In fact, Washington is now trying to correct something it did with disastrous results in the 1980s.