Expert tells US to focus on Pakistani madrasas

The Times of India ^ | October 31 2003 | IANS

[knighthawk]

WASHINGTON : The US should focus on reforming radical madrasas, like those in Pakistan, that are a hotbed of Islamic militants, an Indian counter-terrorism expert said at a congressional hearing.

B Raman, former head of counter-terrorism at the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India 's external intelligence agency, said this while testifying before a joint hearing of the subcommittees on Asia and the Pacific and International Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Human Rights.

The committees were chaired by Representative Jim Leach and Representative Elton Gallegly, both Republican.

Stressing the need to counter madrasa-style education, Raman said young students studying in the Islamic seminaries in Pakistan were of special concern to the South Asia region.

He traced the dramatic rise in the number of madrasas to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s when jehadis were needed to fight the communists.

Foreign money, especially from Saudi Arabia and Iran, poured in to keep the madrasas going. After the defeat of the Soviet Union, the clout of these schools rose, and many continued to receive foreign funding.

There are currently up to one million madrasas in Pakistan, a minority of which, perhaps 15 per cent, indoctrinate their pupils with Islamist vitriol and militancy.

Raman said the US should also use its aid to ensure reform of school education in Pakistan . It should also consider bolstering funding for ‘secular education’ in Pakistan, he said.

Referring to Representative Dan Burton's questions on why India had shied away from the UN resolution to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir, Raman said it was Pakistan that had violated the UN resolution by not withdrawing from its occupation of Kashmir .

He also quoted UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to say that after 56 years, the UN resolutions ‘had become irrelevant’.

He said all the problems in Jammu and Kashmir were not due to militancy but due to large-scale infiltration from the Pakistani side. These mercenaries operating in the region adhere to the ultra-orthodox Wahabi-style of Islam.

He also quoted extensively from the State Department's ‘Patterns of Global Terrorism’ to drive home his point that the remnants of the jehadis of the Afghan war have now found a new mission in Jammu and Kashmir -- to create instability through violence with the full backing of Pakistan.

Others in the panel who made their presentations were Zachary Abuza, assistant professor of political science and international relations, Simmons College; Timothy Hoyt, associate professor of strategy and policy, US Naval War College; and Robert Oakley, fellow, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defence University.

All of them spoke of the rise of radical Jemiah Islamiya - ideologically affiliated to the al Qaeda - in Southeast Asia and the threat it posed in, notably, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Mr.Clark]

Reform madrassas = Fuel Air Munitions

[Paleo Conservative]

He also quoted UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to say that after 56 years, the UN resolutions ?had become irrelevant?.

[swarthyguy]

CROSS-BORDER TERRORIST CHALLENGES FACING INDIA AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR US COUNTER-TERRORISM POLICY

(Text of advance testimony given by the author at a joint hearing of the sub-committees on Asia and the Pacific and International Terrorism, Non-Proliferation and Human Rights of the House Committee on International Relations at Washington DC on October 29, 2003)

http://www.saag.org/papers9/paper824.html

It's a little lengthy, but still a comprehensive overview.

It's too bad this never made it to Cspan - either the website or tv. It's the Congressional questions that may have been interesting.