Source: CNS News
(CNSNews.com) – A new study released Tuesday found that Pakistan’s public school textbooks negatively portray the country’s religious minorities, including Hindus, Christians and Ahmadis, as “untrustworthy, religiously inferior, and ideologically scheming.”
The report, “Teaching Intolerance in Pakistan: Religious Bias in Public School Textbooks,” analyzed 78 textbooks from all four provinces covering grades five through 10.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) sponsored the study, which was conducted by the Pakistan-based NGO Peace and Education Foundation (PEF). The study found 70 new instances of bias in addition to finding that some problematic content found in a 2011 study conducted by USCIRF had remained and even been expanded upon.
“Pakistan’s public school textbooks contain deeply troubling content that portrays non-Muslim citizens as outsiders, unpatriotic, and inferior; are filled with errors; and present widely-disputed historical ‘facts’ as settled history,” USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George said in a statement on the report’s release. “Missing from these textbooks are any references to the rights of religious minorities and their positive contributions to Pakistan’s development.”
“These textbooks sadly reflect the alarming state today of religious freedom in Pakistan,” he concluded. “A country’s education system, including its textbooks, should promote religious tolerance, not close the door to cooperation and coexistence.”
The 52-page report contains many examples of a troubling portrayal of religious minorities in the public school textbooks.
A passage in an eighth grade Islamic Studies book published in 2015 as part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Curriculum describes jihad in a positive light.
“Prophet (PBUH) said that ‘Jihad will continue till the end of times’. Jihad is going on in different parts of the world. Many Mujahidins of Islam are participating in Jihad for sake of Allah, for protection of their religion, to help their oppressed brothers, and to get freedom from tyranny,” it read. “As a student if you cannot practically participate in Jihad you can at least financially help in preparation of Jihad.”
A passage from a tenth grade Punjab textbook, also published in 2015, states, “Because the Muslim religion, culture and social system are different from non-Muslims, it is impossible to cooperate with Hindus.”
Categories: Asia, Intra-Religious Tolerance, Pakistan, The Muslim Times