Recent Events
Many of you are well aware about the recent Taliban attack in Peshawar Pakistan that has killed 145 people, including 132 children. This unspeakable atrocity has been treated as a planned operation to oppose the Pakistani security force activity against Taliban in Pakistan. Taliban is essentially targeting the children of the people who are fighting them. However, the Taliban has been targeting the Education system in Pakistan for a lot longer.
Poison in Education
The root of all evil in this world can be found in the degree and scope of education a society provides for its youth. One of my classmates in college once told me - "my parents did not want me to be educated in Lebanon, which is why I went to school here (Hartford)". The reasons that Syed's parent's didn't want him to be educated in Lebanon was due to the narrow view of humanity, a steady dose of hatred, and the lack of value for a human life that the local education set for the young. His parents did not want him to see his neighbors as sub-human, hate those who are unlike him, and sacrifice his life in the name of some holy war. So they smartly shielded their child from this poison and immigrated overseas to provide a better chance for their child to succeed. The result - when I met Syed he very much valued human life and treated his peers as equals regardless of race, sex, ethnicity or religion. But not all children of Radicalized Islamic areas of the world are as fortunate.
Taliban
There is no better example of education specifically catered to Radical Islam and Terrorism than that of the Taliban. The very name translates to 'Students'. However, the material they disseminate among their own followers is nothing short of repressive Jihadist propaganda that teaches a very narrow sliver of Islam, skewed toward fostering hatred. They teach a repressive diet of conservative Islam with a repressive view of women's rights and intolerance toward those who do not conform. The Taliban are so opposed to female education in Pakistan, that they were inclined to shoot a defenseless girl, better known as the Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, in the head. This organization is so opposed to freedom of education, that they are willing to kill their young to get the point across. And, sadly, this vile commitment has again manifested itself in Peshawar this past week. The Taliban, 'Students', know very well that their poisonous rhetoric cannot hold up to scrutiny when confronted by freely educated youth and they are afraid.
Enlightenment
Golda Meir, the former Prime Minister of Israel, once said: "Peace will come when the Arabs start to love their children more than they hate us". She was specifically talking about opponents of Israel using children as front-line soldiers and/or shields. These actions epitomize the Terrorist mindset of taking the value of even a child's life as a 'shahid', a martyr, dying for a cause and rejoicing in the death itself. This concept is not unique to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Taliban itself advocates such acts of martyrdom for their own purpose and regard the militants who died in the Peshawar School siege as such martyrs. We must seek a higher level of understanding as human beings across this world - such atrocities have no place on this planet.
As people of the earth, each an every one of us must fight to provide free and independent sources of education to every corner of the earth. We live in the age of the Global Internet, where such collective action should be possible. We must similarly fight to expose these false prophets (Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc.) for the scum of the earth they are and eradicate them from existence - for they are the true poison of this planet.
