Tune in to my story for PRI’s The World about religious and not-so-secular schooling in Pakistan, which I reported with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crises Reporting.
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/106549238" params="show_artwork=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
Here’s an excerpt:
Dr. A.H. Nayyar is a retired professor who’s studied the effects of this dramatic shift [away from Pakistan’s once secular curriculum]. He said, “They had lessons on Islamic principles and Islamic practice and Islamic history in books on English, in books on social studies. And in some cases, also in books on mathematics.”
More troubling, said Nayyar, is the very radical and militant view of Islam that was inked into the country’s national public school curriculum, and into the hearts and minds of students.
“There were lessons in textbooks which actually told students, and still continue to do in the latest books, that jihad is enjoined upon all Muslims and getting ready for jihad, not just by fighting yourself, but also if you can’t fight supporting it by providing it money and help and so on and so forth, is supposed to be duty of each and every Muslim,” he said. “No wonder that jihad has now become so deep-rooted in Pakistani society.”