Islamic fundamentalist education creating ‘bigoted’ Pakistan, says bishops’ official
January 19, 2011
Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the justice and peace commission of the Pakstani bishops’ conference, in part attributes the increasing fundamentalism of the nation’s Muslims to curricular changes made in the nation’s schools during the regime of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (1977-88). Since that time, “the education curriculum has been crammed, at every level, of that much religious material that public schools now seem to compete with the madrassas [Koranic schools],” he charges.
“If we want our young people prepared to live as responsible citizens, law-abiding, and not growing up as bigoted and biased, Pakistan must radically change the substance of public education,” says Jacob.
The bishops’ conference official also lamented that the nation’s non-Muslim students “are required to take Islamic studies in order to obtain a valid qualification.”
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Posted by: -
Jan. 19, 2011 4:31 PM ET USA
I don't think it amounts to being "bigoted and biased" if you are taught that your religious beliefs are objectively true and others false. The problem is that these schools teach intolerance for the existence of others who do not espouse the same beliefs - to the point that they must be converted or killed.
