Pakistan, Afghanistan Madrasas the breeding ground for terrorists: EFSAS researcher at UN

Religious schools and Madrasas in Pakistan and Afghanistan are becoming breeding grounds for terrorists, according to a research analyst at the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS).

As per ANI reports, Anne Heckendorff remarked in her virtual speech at the 48th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council,

"The threat of terrorism in South Asia has long been associated with religious schools, or Madrasas. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, these schools, which sometimes instil a warped, ultra-conservative vision of Islam, continue to thrive unabated."

According to researcher Anne, such Madrasas in Pakistan gave birth to the Taliban and the dangerous Haqqani network. Under the cover of Pakistan's intelligence agency, terrorist organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and others continue to operate terror factories in the country.

There are numerous illegal madrasas or religious schools, in Pakistan and Afghanistan, that force young people to engage in jihad (holy war). They instil enmity towards other religions and encourage people to participate in gun culture.

EFSAS research analyst, while speaking at UNHRC was quoted by ANI as saying,

"The Taliban's bogus promises of education must not be used to pacify the international community. What good is education if it produces foot soldiers brainwashed in a worldview defined by misogyny and bigotry, rather than a workforce capable of guiding their country down a path of peace and development?"

She stressed in her speech that the Taliban's lack of economic independence, as well as that of its patron state next door, had a silver lining: leverage to the international community. There is a lot of leverage that can be used to prevent another generation of young Afghans from succumbing to Madrasa-bred radicalism.

The research analyst concluded that the most substantial investment we can make in Afghanistan's future is to impose restrictions on diplomatic and economic involvement to assure human rights-compliant education, without which the right to development will be difficult to materialise.

(With inputs from ANI)

Image: AP