Conflicting Ideologies (Malik Sohail Nawaz)
Faheem and his cousins were gathered in Eid holidays. They were meeting after a gap of nearly eight months as some of them were studying in different colleges and universities or Madrasas of the country. They were eighteen young and mature cousins, and all grew up together, even going to the same school. They were simple villagers and had been together since childhood. Hence, they shared common memories and knew each other very well. It was a barbecue night and the year was 2010, when the country was facing the strong wave of terrorism. Suddenly the hot debate started between the cousins as now a few of them were PhD holders and most of them were pursuing higher studies from different universities. Yousuf, who had completed his education from a famous Mudarsa (an Islamic institution) spoke about the terrorism and terrorist attacks in the country. He stated that all the actions taken by the active terrorist organizations were right as military has done wrong act by conducting the operations near the Afghan border.
This statement started a hot debate between the people who studied and were studying from different types of educational fields i.e. formal and traditional. Ayaan, whograduated in Defense and Strategic Studies, was stunned to know about the views from a Mudarsa student. For him, it was due to lack of information and loopholes in traditional education system where the people do not have any idea about the ground realities. He started to convince Yousuf that the scenario is totally different to what he was injected by the well-known Mudarsa. The alumni of his Madrasah were an active part of the Afghan Jihad. Yousuf shouted that the suicide bombing is Halal as per the teachings of Islam and the victims have all the rights to take any step against the military aggression.
The main thing was that he was not talking about American military butabout Pakistani armed forces. Shoaib, the most senior cousin of all the family members, tried to calm down the situation by stating complete definition and practical implementation of Jihad and tried to bring Yousuf back to the righteous path. But it was too late as Yousuf was not willing to accept anything from the senior family member. Jafir, who was serving captain in Pakistan military and have been a part of an operation in Hungu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and witnessed the heads of military personals being chopped off by the Tarik-i-Taliban Pakistan, became furious and shouted that we sacrifice for you people and you are saying such things about the terrorists who are diminishing the peace of our country.
The debate became extreme between the cousins and it triggered an ideological conflict between people, belonging to two different fields of education. A few of them, who were University graduates, had some views about Madrasa and maulvis (religious teachers) that were based on extremism as they thought that these uneducated mullahs were behind the creation of terrorism in Pakistan. They were of the views that these religious people have no knowledge about religion and the materialistic world, so it was easy by the terrorist organizations to inject their ideology through literature of mudaris and brainwashing the minds of children, who were from 6 to 18 years old. Umair spoke up for the first time and said that the literature is playing a vital role in Pakistan society and it is creating an ideological conflict between traditional and modern educational systems and terrorists have been successful in achieving their goals by creating the diaspora in our educational system.
Anyhow, at the end of the debate, all cousins agreed that terrorism has affected the education system of Pakistan whereasa clear-cut diaspora can also be seen in form of class culture. It was also due to societal problems in Pakistan that includes poor educational structure and poverty. All agreed on one thing that there must be educational reforms in Pakistan which should work under Federal government and the traditional education system must be revised.