09-30-2006, 06:32 PM
<b>Radical teachings in Pakistan schools</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Madrassas back Taliban, bin Laden
By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff | September 29, 2006
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- In a bustling, prosperous corner of this capital city stands the gated campus of a religious school, or madrassa, where some 10,000 students study the teachings of the Koran every day.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts Abdul Rashid Ghazi, assistant headmaster at the school, sat cross-legged on the floor flanked by a Koran and a Kalashnikov, and asked that a reporter not photograph the weapon because it would ``give the wrong impression."
Then Ghazi proceeded to praise Osama bin Laden's call to ``jihad," or holy war, against the West. He expressed ``great pride" that ``at least hundreds" of graduates from his school have answered the call to take up arms against US forces in Afghanistan. And he openly described himself and his students as ``pro-Taliban."
The Jamia Feridia school does not exist in the shadowy fringes of militant Islam. It operates openly and has a 40-year history as part of the religious establishment in a country that Washington regards as a pivotal ally in the ``war on terror."
The school starkly illustrates just how radicalized Pakistan has become and how widespread is the support for both bin Laden and the Taliban, diplomats and political observers here say.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Madrassas back Taliban, bin Laden
By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff | September 29, 2006
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- In a bustling, prosperous corner of this capital city stands the gated campus of a religious school, or madrassa, where some 10,000 students study the teachings of the Koran every day.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts Abdul Rashid Ghazi, assistant headmaster at the school, sat cross-legged on the floor flanked by a Koran and a Kalashnikov, and asked that a reporter not photograph the weapon because it would ``give the wrong impression."
Then Ghazi proceeded to praise Osama bin Laden's call to ``jihad," or holy war, against the West. He expressed ``great pride" that ``at least hundreds" of graduates from his school have answered the call to take up arms against US forces in Afghanistan. And he openly described himself and his students as ``pro-Taliban."
The Jamia Feridia school does not exist in the shadowy fringes of militant Islam. It operates openly and has a 40-year history as part of the religious establishment in a country that Washington regards as a pivotal ally in the ``war on terror."
The school starkly illustrates just how radicalized Pakistan has become and how widespread is the support for both bin Laden and the Taliban, diplomats and political observers here say.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->