02-24-2007, 10:13 PM
Link<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A couple of years ago, a Karachi monthly magazine ran a cover story on the terrorism in Kashmir. One fighter was asked what he would do if a political resolution was found for the disputed valley. Revealingly, he replied that he would not lay down his gun, but turn it on the Pakistani leadership, with the aim of installing an Islamic government there.
This is the crux of the entire problem. The violence we are experiencing today is entirely local, entirely home-grown. The young killers hitting targets across the country are neither fighting for a homeland, and nor are they seeking to evict a foreign occupier. They want nothing less than to seize power, and to turn Pakistan into their version of the ideal Islamic state. In their incoherent, ill-formed vision, this would include restoring the caliphate, as well as doing away with all western influence and elements of modernity, except, perhaps, the Kalashnikov and the Internet.
How, you may ask, has it come to this? The answer does not lie far from anybody living in Pakistan. Today, well over 20,000 madressahs are imparting religious instruction (and precious little else) to millions of children across Pakistan. And while most of them do not actively encourage violent revolution, they do effectively brainwash their students into rejecting reason and independent thinking.
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This is the crux of the entire problem. The violence we are experiencing today is entirely local, entirely home-grown. The young killers hitting targets across the country are neither fighting for a homeland, and nor are they seeking to evict a foreign occupier. They want nothing less than to seize power, and to turn Pakistan into their version of the ideal Islamic state. In their incoherent, ill-formed vision, this would include restoring the caliphate, as well as doing away with all western influence and elements of modernity, except, perhaps, the Kalashnikov and the Internet.
How, you may ask, has it come to this? The answer does not lie far from anybody living in Pakistan. Today, well over 20,000 madressahs are imparting religious instruction (and precious little else) to millions of children across Pakistan. And while most of them do not actively encourage violent revolution, they do effectively brainwash their students into rejecting reason and independent thinking.
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