Hatred Material in School Syllabus of Pakistan Spoiling Children By Arsalan Haider LAHORE: January 8, 2012, The Pakistani society

has witnessed a considerable surg e in the number of incidents of terrorism and violence against minorities during the last decade. If we try to search for the reasons for this gradual spread of intolerance, viol ence and terrorism, we come to know that the roots of these problems lie in most schoolbooks, which are being considered a major source for the promotion of hat red against minorities. According to some educationists and experts, this hatred material was made part of the syllabus during the era of Ziaul Haq, who tried to Islamicise every depar tment, including the education. General Zia presented an education policy during his government, giving highest priority to the revision of the curricula with a view to reorganising the entire content on Islamic thoughts and giving education an ideological orientation so that the Islamic ideology floods the thinking of the younger generation. He wanted to mould the youngsters minds, in order to refashion society according to the Islamic tenets. Islamicising the education sector resulted in the spread of hatred against non-M uslims and minorities, which eventually triggered incidents of violent against m inorities. Such hatred material has been identified by several governmental and non-governm ental organisations time and again, but the authorities concerned remained silen t over the issue. The material causing anti-non-Muslim sentiments to trigger can easily be found i n many lessons of the social studies and Pakistan studies. A chapter in the social studies book of class 8 regarding the ideology of Pakistan states that the creation of Pakistan was crucial because the religion and the ide ntity of Muslims in united India were at stake. The lesson also states that Hindus believed that theirs was the only nation in the sub-continent, and that other nations should either merge in it, or quit India. In the same chapter, it is also written that no one could tolerate blasphemy aga inst his religion, but the English officers encouraged the priests to move again st Muslims, and also participate in their meeting. In the Pakistan studies book of class 10, a chapter titled Islamic Republic of Pakistan has a heading about t he causes for the separation of East Pakistan and the role of the Indian governm ent, which states that when Pakistan came into being, the Hindus tried their bes t to weaken and destroy it. A study was conducted on hatred materials being taught to students, in which ove r 100 textbooks for pupils from grade 1 to grade 10 across the four provinces we re reviewed. The report showed that the books contained religious discrimination and falsified historical accounts, which eventually increases violence and reli gious extremism. It is the need of the hour that the authorities try to review these textbooks an d make necessity changes to reduce the increasing level of intolerance, violence and terrorism in our society. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012%5C01%5C08%5Cstory_8-1-2012_pg 7_15 ----------