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Thesis.Pdf (5.425Mb) Centre for Peace Studies Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education Master’s thesis in Peace and Conflict Transformation – SVF-3901 May 2015 Understanding the Role of Education in Promoting Violence and Terrorism in Pakistan FAISAL MUNIR i ii Acknowledgements I am grateful to my supervisor Associate Professor, Vambheim Nils Vidar who was a source of wisdom and encouragement. He has been supportive throughout my studies. I owe a special debt to Vladimir Mihajlović, Neala Hickey and Muhammad Akram Sharif for providing excellent editorial guidance. Finally Special thanks is owed to Professor. Dr. Khalid Iraqi for providing assistance during field work and critical reviews. iii Abstract In Pakistan the “nexus between, education, religion, and national identity” is a complex phenomenon1. Having removed the civilian elected government amidst the political turmoil in 1979, Zia ul Haq’s military regime sought internal political legitimacy and simultaneously tried to counter two external threats, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iranian revolution. Underpinned by Saudi ideology and American assistance, the military regime sought political control through education. The revised curricula became the primary source of the decline of educational standards, and the ideas imported from Saudi Arabia and the U.S. brought serious challenges to the very existence of Pakistan itself. The destruction of pluralism, the new political order based on force and revised curricula entailed insensitivity to minorities, glorification of war, promotion of jihad and martyrdom, and paved the way for religiously motivated terrorism in Pakistan. In addition, religious absolutism facilitates intolerance toward people of other beliefs. Peace educators and concerned citizens should take drastic measures to save the educational crisis from turning into a disaster. Keywords: education, identity, jihad, martyrdom, peace, politics, religion, terrorism 1 Lall 2008 iv Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................... 1 1.1 Politics of education: Nexus between education and terrorism ................................. 2 1.2 Previous research .................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Motivation for this study ......................................................................................... 6 1.4 Problem statement ................................................................................................... 6 1.5 Research questions .................................................................................................. 7 1.6 Structure of the thesis .............................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2. Introduction of Pakistan and its Education Sector ..................... 8 2.1 Historical background of Pakistan ........................................................................... 8 2.2 The historical and sociopolitical context of Pakistan and the significance of 1979. 11 2.2.1 Education ....................................................................................................... 13 2.2.2 Overview of Pakistani education system ........................................................ 14 2.2.3 Madrasahs education ...................................................................................... 16 2.2.4 Central boards of madrasahs in Pakistan ........................................................ 17 2.2.5 Public schools ................................................................................................ 18 2.2.6 Private schools ............................................................................................... 18 Chapter 3. Methodology ................................................................................ 19 3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 19 3.2 Justification of research method ............................................................................ 20 3.3 Hermeneutic content analysis ................................................................................ 21 3.4 Content analysis .................................................................................................... 22 3.5 Critical discourse analysis ..................................................................................... 22 3.6 Preparatory work. Semi Structured Interviews with educators and students in Pakistan. .......................................................................................................................... 23 3.7 The Interpretive research approach ........................................................................ 23 3.8 The case study strategy ......................................................................................... 26 3.9 Approached adopted for this case study ................................................................. 28 3.10 Research design .................................................................................................... 28 3.11 Data preparation .................................................................................................... 28 3.12 Limitations ............................................................................................................ 29 3.13 Reliability and validity .......................................................................................... 30 3.14 Theoretical framework .......................................................................................... 31 v Chapter 4. Religiously motivated violence, Jihad and terrorism. The concepts, their meanings, and their relation to historical context. .............. 32 4.1 An overview of terrorism ...................................................................................... 33 4.2 Difference between secular and religious terrorism ............................................... 35 4.3 Rational choice theory and terrorism: .................................................................... 36 4.4 Orthodox theory .................................................................................................... 37 4.5 Suicide bombing rational action? .......................................................................... 39 4.6 Rational choice and death...................................................................................... 40 4.7 Terrorism and identity theory ................................................................................ 42 4.8 Cultural identity .................................................................................................... 42 4.9 Social identity ....................................................................................................... 43 4.10 Personal identity ................................................................................................... 44 4.10.1 Jihad. The concept and its interpretations ....................................................... 45 4.10.2 Dar-al-Islam (Abode of Islam) and Dar-al-Harb (Abode of War) ................... 47 4.10.3 A Journey from holy to Unholy ...................................................................... 48 4.10.4 Jihad a cultural activity .................................................................................. 48 4.10.5 Martyrdom and holidays ................................................................................ 49 4.10.6 Jihad in South Asia ........................................................................................ 50 4.10.7 Contextualization of Jihad with reference to Pakistan ..................................... 50 4.10.8 Jihad to counter modernity ............................................................................. 51 4.11 Summary .............................................................................................................. 51 Chapter 5. Curriculum content and its relation to religiously motivated violence in Pakistan........................................................................................ 52 5.1 Textbook and curriculum ...................................................................................... 52 5.2 Glorification of war ............................................................................................... 53 5.3 Islam as political ideology ..................................................................................... 53 5.4 Brotherhood .......................................................................................................... 54 5.5 Muslim moral superiority ...................................................................................... 54 5.6 Victim mentality ................................................................................................... 55 5.7 Anti-India and hostility against Hindus ................................................................. 56 5.8 Collective memory of physical violence ................................................................ 57 5.9 Fear, anger, hatred................................................................................................. 57 5.10 National, ethnic and religious prejudice ................................................................. 58 5.11 Factual inaccuracy of history ................................................................................. 59 5.11.1 Discussion and analysis of the text ................................................................
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