These so-called guardians of religion, with their shallow knowledge, have eroded the true concept of education
ISLAMABAD: Education, which is a basic human right, has faced serious security threats in countries like Pakistan. The terrorists’ ideological and conservative mindset has now crossed all limits. The example of the Swat valley can be best quoted in this regard where terrorists banned education and where the education icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousufzai was shot in the head by the Taliban for raising her voice for education. These militant elements consider Western education as unethical and immoral. In 2014, a newly emerging militant group started an anti-West campaign warning all private schools imparting Western-style education and co-education to shut down in Panjgur district of Balochistan. Another tragic incident, that of the Peshawar attacks in December last year, was a belligerent show of the terrorists’ hatred for education. The TTP killed around 130 schoolchildren ranging between eight and 18 years of age. It may be that the motives for the attack were different, but there is no doubt the casualty, once again, was education.
History reveals that such catastrophic events are not new. The Beslan school hostage crisis in Russia, back in 2004, resulted in the deaths of 300 people which mostly included schoolchildren. It was done on the pretext that Chechnya be recognised as an independent entity at the UN and that Russian troops withdraw from Chechnyan soil. According to a UN report, there have been regular school attacks in at least 70 countries between 2009 and 2014. Children accessing education were particularly targeted in these attacks. The high-profile cases in the last five years include the Peshawar attack, the Boko Haram’s atrocities, kidnappings of Chibok schoolgirls, the Taliban’s 2012 shooting of Malala Yousufzai, acid attacks between 2012 and 2014 against schoolgirls in Afghanistan, the forced dropping out of schoolgirls in Somalia to become wives of al Shabaab fighters and in 2013, the abduction and abuse of girls at a Christian school in India. All these incidents point towards the lack of safety of children, especially girls, and the lack of security at their educational institutions.
The basic human values and professional skills which education inculcates seem to be against the core agenda of the militants and their organisational interests. All these terrorists groups, including al Qaeda, the Boko Haram and the Taliban may differ in their ethnic make-up, geographical locations and culture, but their misogynist ideologies and hatred for education are similar. These militant groups, with their self-created interpretations of faith and ideologies, have promoted discrimination against women in society. Religion has been used as a tool for their botched political objectives for decades. These so-called guardians of religion, with their shallow knowledge, have eroded the true concept of education.
Education has been given top priority in faith and its pursuance considered as a matter of great dignity and honour for every Muslim. Terrorism against education is a global threat. It is the dire need of the hour that all Muslim nations, including Pakistan, work against such terrorism. The best weapon to fight terrorism and extremism is only through education, and particularly through the education of girls. The terrorists understand this, which is why they are so threatened. Education can transform fundamentalist and extremist mindsets into rational and tolerant ones. It can empower us with peace, knowledge, prosperity and take guns out of our hands.
Aymen Ijaz
Published in The Express Tribune, March 22nd, 2015.
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