Comment by Riaz Haq on January 29, 2016 at 8:46am

#Education is becoming an extremist battleground in #Pakistan. #TTP #Terrorism, #BachaKhanUniversity #Malala http://wpo.st/mEW71

 

The one year anniversary commemorations of the heinous attack on a Peshawar public school were barely over when gunmen once again went from classroom to classroom killing students and staff at a Pakistani university nearby. The sickening attack confirmed that the Taliban is waging a carefully considered ideological war in Pakistan — and the nation’s more than 200,000 public and private schools are now at the front lines.

 

In doing so, they are attacking the one area of Pakistani society where there is clear reason for optimism, as the growth of low-cost private schools in recent decades has given more and more young people, particularly girls, access to education.

 

Tahir Andrabi Tahir Andrabi Asim I. Khwaja Asim I. Khwaja

There are very visible casualties of this strategy: not only Malala Yousafzai, now world-famous and a Nobel laureate, but Aitzaz Hasan, the 15-year-old boy who died preventing a suicide bomber from entering his school in the northern district of Hangu and chemistry professor Hamid Hussain, who died while trying to stave off the Taliban gunmen so his students could escape.

 

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Will Pakistani citizens – and parents – maintain their growing commitment to education in the face of Taliban brutality? How much risk is too much? In surveys, we find that parents of Pakistani students are progressive, forward-looking, and don’t want religious indoctrination for their children. But if violence disrupts their mental calculus – if in addition to a school’s price, distance, and quality they add the consideration that their child could be killed – then parents may no longer behave normally, despite their preferences. Instead fear might compel them to withdraw from schools entirely.

 

As we speak, many schools are announcing temporary closure of facilities in the aftermath of the latest attack. The government has ominously warned that the Taliban may be winning psychologically – even as the army operation against them weakens their military capabilities.

 

Protecting more than 30 million children spread across thousands of locations is not something the security forces can accomplish by themselves or simply by targeting militant strongholds. Ordinary citizens must affirm by their beliefs, words, and actions in everyday life that they recognize the danger that resides among them. Until they can actualize their own agency in protecting these children, the most progressive social current in the country will be lost – and with time, so might Pakistan itself.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 17, 2017 at 2:45pm

#SaudiaArabia sees #Trump's #Riyadh visit and #US-#Arab-#Islamic summit as a golden opportunity to assert leadership

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1100821/saudi-arabia

US President Donald Trump’s first official foreign trip since taking office will include three key summits on May 20-21, attended by 55 leaders and representatives from across the Islamic world, as well as several business activities, cultural, intellectual and sports celebrations.
Observers looking to follow Trump’s visit and related events can now do so via the official website which was launched Tuesday at www.riyadhsummit2017.org, along with associated mobile apps and social media feeds.
Held under the slogan “together we prevail,” the main events will be the Saudi-US Summit, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-US Summit, and the Arab-Islamic-American Summit. In addition, a high-profile counter-terrorism event will be held at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, as well as the Tweeps 2017 social media summit.
The high-profile visit “will renew our mutual commitment to global security and further strengthen already deep business, cultural and political ties,” the website said.

On his first day in the Kingdom, Trump will visit the King Abdulaziz Historical Center, a cultural landmark highlighting the prominent history of the Arabian Peninsula and its historical role in the spread of Islam.

The Saudi-US Summit will also feature a series of bilateral meetings between King Salman and Trump, and “focus on re-affirming the long-standing friendship, and strengthening the close political, economic, security and cultural bonds between the two nations.”
The GCC-US Summit, held at the King Abdulaziz Convention Center in Riyadh, will see GCC leaders meet with Trump to discuss threats to regional security and stability and the building of stronger commercial ties between the US and the Gulf.
The Arab Islamic American Summit will see Trump meet with leaders of the world’s Islamic nations “to address ways of building more robust and effective security partnerships to counter and prevent the growing threat of terrorism and violent extremism around the globe through promoting tolerance and moderation.”
The visit by Trump also coincides with a string of associated events, including one entitled Tweeps 2017. That event — held at the Ritz Carlton Riyadh — will see the Twitter-loving US president meet with figures including King Abdallah of Jordan, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai. That event will include a variety of panels, including one on countering radical views on social media platforms, which will be moderated by Faisal J. Abbas, editor in chief of Arab News.

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