Author:
Publication: India Abroad
Date: October 25, 2001
URL: http://www.indiaabroad.com/us/2001/oct/25ny3.htm
The United States said on Wednesday
that Pakistan was seeking aid not to buy arms but to replace the education
provided by the madarasas (seminaries) with modern schools.
"(President Pervez) Musharraf wants
to put in place a public education system. One of the reasons he was so
interested in getting debt relief was not to buy weapons, but to put in
place schools that would teach kids and prepare them for the 21st century,"
Secretary of State Colin Powell told the International Relations Committee.
Powell was replying to Congressman
Ed Royce, co-chairman of the India Caucus, who said there were madarasas
in Pakistan, including 4,000 in Peshawar, which "spread lies about the
US".
Royce said he visited these schools
in 1996 and reported that "they are spreading dissension and that Afghanistan
would become a security threat to the US if Washington did not take steps
to offset the lies spread from them".
"And it is not only the madarasas.
For instance, The Nation said that 4,000 Jewish workers in New York did
not go to work on September 11 to the Twin Towers because the Mossad (Israeli
intelligence) planned an attack that day," Royce said.
"Such disinformation helps Osama
bin Laden. The Shariat Radio of Afghanistan also spreads such disinformation,"
he said, calling for a separate US-funded radio, like Radio Free Europe,
to counter it.
Royce also said the madarasas were
funded by the Saudis and one of their conditions was that they be run by
the Wahhabi religious teachers - a radical school of thought.
PTI