Journal of Education and Social Sciences, Vol. 2, (Oct.) ISSN 2289-9855 2015 EDUCATION AND COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM: A CASE STUDY OF SCHOOLS IN PAKISTAN Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri Assistant Professor/Head, School of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, Minhaj University, Lahore [email protected] ABSTRACT There has been an increasing realization within the world community that uni-focal approach to deal with the menace of terrorism and violent extremism is not capable of delivering results as it just seeks to eradicate symptoms without necessarily trying to address the root causes that are at heart of mushroom growth of the problem. It is a battle of hearts and minds then anything else. This paper at hand explores the role of education in combating the violent extremism by using Pakistani education system as a case study. It undertakes a historical perspective of growth of the educational sector in Pakistan by delving deep into pre-partition system. The paper also shows why education has failed to cure the malaise and what can be done to render it into a force for eradication of violence based ideology. In order to present the authenticity and effectiveness of education to counter extremism, the writer also has thrown light on the three phase educational reforms movement in Indo-Pak Sub-continent’s history and it’s after effects. The paper recommends the measures to make the imparting of education a meaningful and productive process aimed at combating violent extremism. Key words: Violent Extremism, Pakistani Education, Educational Reforms, Madrassa, Politics Introduction The war on terror, which started in 2001 following catastrophic events in New York, is well into the second decade. By all accounts, a war that was fought to combat and eradicate terrorism is yet to accomplish its declared objectives. In the process of few full-scale wars, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives. Economic loss suffered by the world community is too immense to be calculated (Belasco, 2009). The 9/11 and what followed it changed the world in ways none could imagine it a decade ago. The world has never been the same place where amity, peace and harmony prevailed and people belonging to different cultures and civilizations lived in mutual respect. The reliance on hard power as a policy of preferred choice to counter extremism and terrorism has only ended up compounding the problem. Despite massive expenditures that have gone into wars and other related security matters, the world remains as unsafe as ever. The non-state actors including a plethora of militant and terrorist organizations remain undefeated. Going by the events taking place in different parts of the world, it appears that violence has emerged as a key instrument to put across one’s point of view. While factors and variables responsible for spawning violence and bloodshed vary depending upon the context, geography, political and economic systems of violence-infected regions, the agreement among ‘the stakeholders’ to resort to violence to push through one’s agenda or even to attract attention to their real or supposed grievances points to alarming trends, which if not checked through a well-thought through and carefully calibrated policy, have the potential of plunging the world in more chaos and strife. What has reinforced failure and exposed the nation-states’ inability to stem the upsurge in violence is the ineffectiveness of institutions to acknowledge instances of discrimination and put in place effective deterrence and mechanisms aimed at protecting fundamental rights, dispensation of inexpensive and speedy justice, equitable distribution of resources, ensuring rule of law, encouraging community participation and ensuring effective service delivery. The growing disenfranchisement and alienation experienced by a selected group of people who employ violence at having been wronged presents a daunting challenge (H. M. Qadri, 2013). The challenge cannot be met adequately with the same old mindset that looks at the problem from a narrow prism and reiteration of policies that have failed miserably in stemming the tide of violence (Corn & Jensen, 2009) As a sage pointed out so succinctly that insanity lies in doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. A problem that has bedeviled the world for many years and still refuses to go away calls for a thorough inspection, investigation and understanding. This is possible if fresh ideas are applied. It is in this context that changing the intellectual and political framework, which has been used to analyze the problem of extremism and radicalism, is of immense importance. The employment of jargons such as ‘war on terror’ and ‘clash of 22 Journal of Education and Social Sciences, Vol. 2, (Oct.) ISSN 2289-9855 2015 civilizations’ used by the likes of George W. Bush and Samuel Huntington need to be revisited as they cast the debate in truly ideological and religious coloring without ever trying to understand the problem from purely a strategic angle. “This ‘clash of civilizations’ paradigm has not only affected world politics through creating a barrier to dialogue and negotiation between Muslims and the Western elite but has also affected domestic politics of effected regions, promoting an ‘us and them’ mentality, particularly in the areas of immigration, multiculturalism and race relations.”(Manohy, 2010) The discourse has also resulted in crippling social justice in local and regional societies thereby increasing violence and racial vilification of Muslim minorities around the world (Deliberates, 2008). Changing the narrative within which debate on terrorism, extremism, militancy and radicalism has been conducted so far is also important from a strategic point of view. Enlarging the scope of debate will also allow explanations and counter explanations aimed at harnessing ideas that were not part of the debate. This is where shifting the gear from a military angle to political and psychological angles come in. As “No strategy aimed at rooting out terrorism and extremism can be successful unless the policymakers comprehend the underlying principles and core components of the radicalization process. Doing so is central to making community engagement a result-oriented and worthwhile exercise. While different models have been enunciated to describe the process of radicalization, three components namely personal grievance, religio-political ideology and mobilization have been common to each model” Qadri (2013). “Grievances both real and perceived lie at the core of the radicalization process, providing what social scientists describe as a cognitive opening. First- or second-generation immigrants in the West are prime candidates for probing this opening. They may have suffered because of exclusion or discrimination, coupled with a lack of identification with the cultures of their parents or grandparents, and extremist narratives can take root in the resulting identity vacuum (Skeem & Cooke, 2010). But grievance alone cannot explain how individuals become radicalized; they must also be subjected to a methodology through which frustration or anger can be directed. Target is also needed against which budding radicals can lash out ”(Neumann & Smith, 2007) However, in this writer’s view, the making of a terrorist is the function of four stages with each stage paving the way for more hardened approach. They are: (a) narrow-mindedness, (2) extremism, (3) radicalism and (4) terrorism. A terrorist passes through these phases, which represents the interconnection of these four factors. The factor of ‘support structures’ as suggested by many experts comes later on after the radicalization process is complete (Qadri, 2013). This brings us to the point that battling extremism, militancy and radicalism is a long drawn out process. The military approach can yield short-term results but cannot uproot the menace. In order to be able to eradicate these scourges from our midst, the world community should strive to design and present a counter message, a message of hope, peace, inclusion, participation and equality. 2. Countering Extremism through Education The importance of education in setting the economic, social and political direction of a nation can hardly be disputed. Education is not merely a dynamic restricted to improving the morals of individuals, polishing their personalities and changing their social and psychological behaviors. Rather, given the mass-scale penetration of information and communication technologies, rampancy of globalization of economic, political and global architectures and increasing interdependence of cultures and civilizations, knowledge has come to be identified as a factor of production determining a nation’s status on the global radar screen (Baig, 2013). The edifice of an inclusive and participatory society is based on education. People get equality of opportunity if educational system is uniform in nature. Education serves as social and economic leveler as it equips people with economic power, increases their upward mobility through social empowerment and enables them to take part in decision-making processes. Here we would take an opportunity to explore and discuss Pakistan’s education as a case study, while building up our argument, as it has been a serious victim of extremism and terrorism in recent times and lost over 50,000 lives while fighting this monster; and rightly or wrongly Pakistan is considered an exporter of extremist mind set and terrorism. 2.1 State of Education in Pakistan The role of education as leveler and provider of economic and political opportunities has been seriously questioned in Pakistan. Three streams of education mark Pakistan’s educational landscape namely public sector education institutions, elite private run English-medium institutions and religious seminaries. “There has always been ‘two Pakistan’s’. One Pakistan is reserved for the miniscule English-speaking elites who are educated in expensive private schools and colleges and who go on to govern the country and manage its institutions. The other Pakistan is populated by the unwashed, illiterate masses that slave away from these elites from dawn to dusk.