By
Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam
29 July
2021
Revisiting
the Taliban in Frontier Pakistan
Main
Points:
1. The
Highlights to be utilized for the review are as follows
2. The
mainstream educational institutions have been alleged to be citadels of
everything vice by its enemies who espouse different worldview
3. The
turbulent period 2006-2010 witnessed the growth of Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan
(TTP), its commanders and impact in the area was witnessing a boom
4. The views of
Muslim modernists were too revolutionary for reactionary Muslim scholars to
adopt at or even to help them take a sympathetic look
------
Frontier
of Fear: Confronting the Taliban on Pakistan’s Border
By David
L Gosling
London,
United Kingdom: The Radcliffe Press,
2016,
Pp274. ISBN: 978178454684
------
Education
in an environment of violence is full of challenges. When violence is raging
all around the education becomes the first casualty. The tragedy with education
becomes multi-dimensional and complex when the violence is ideologically driven. The educational
institutions have become the target of those who are ideologically opposed to
the worldview that mainstream education is promoting and reinforcing. The
mainstream educational institutions have been alleged to be citadels of everything
vice by its enemies who espouse different worldview. The roots of this
antagonism can be traced back to colonialism. The colonial onslaught against
the Muslim lands reinforced the educational apathy among Muslims. The colonial
powers brought with themselves new model of education completely replacing the
old one.
This new
model was based on the secular principles of division between the
transcendental and temporal. It resulted in a new crisis among Muslims. Muslims
had never experienced the divide between secular and religious, hence this
change retrograded them to their lowest abysmal conditions. This crisis
generated two types of responses among colonized Muslim lands. One school of
thought was for embracing the educational model of colonial masters while the
other one was demanding a total boycott and resistance against this model. The
tussle continued and still continues in most parts of the Muslim world.
Muslims too
embraced the model of colonial division of education in secular and religious.
The traditional schools or the madrasas became the bastions of the religious
education while the schools, colleges and universities spearheaded the secular
education. These two institutions didn’t let the influence of each other to
impact over them by trying to reinforce water tight compartmentalization and
polarization that makes any kind of interdependence impossible. Thus Muslim
society has been divided into two by the non-overlapping systems of education.
The distance among the cadres of these systems of education is becoming
difficult to breach with each passing day.
The
antagonism against modern educational institutions by some extremists is
touching new heights of barbarism. To run successfully an educational institute
in such a hostile environment is indeed a great feat. The present book under
review is a manifestation of such a daring journey undertaken by the David L
Gosling, while successfully running a mainstream educational institution.
David L
Gosling served as a Principal of Edwardes College, a prestigious higher
education college in Peshawar, provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
(formerly known as North Western Frontier Province) in Pakistan from 2006-2010.
This period was one of the most turbulent times when Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan
(TTP) was gaining its foothold in the region. Since then it has carried
numerous terrorist activities within Pakistan including targeting educational
institutions and massacring innocent school children. The book Frontier of
Fear: Confronting the Taliban on Pakistan’s Border complements as
a memoir instead of some counter insurgency book as the name suggests. It
documents the journey of a Principal of a college and the challenges he faced
in keeping the institution running despite numerous problems and threats.
The book
opens with a history of Edwardes College in Peshawar and the events around it.
It goes on to document the admission process in this prestigious institution,
the local influence that is being protracted to secure admissions and the
college administration that comprises of locals too. It further describes the
college life, its activities that include teaching and extracurricular ones
too. David as an outsider tries to present an objective view of the local ethos
and social milieu but when he writes about the college his description needs to
be taken with a pinch of salt.
The
turbulent period 2006-2010 witnessed the growth of Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan
(TTP), its commanders and impact in the area was witnessing a boom. On the
other hand the terror of drones, their attacks and civilian casualties were
proving counterproductive in fighting against TTP. David caught between devil
and deep sea had to struggle to keep the institution both safe and functioning.
The controversial issue of coeducation in a patriarchal society of Peshawar was
another challenge, though Edwardes has a history of coeducation. But now with
TTP gaining more influence, death threats were issued against David for not
allowing boys to pray on Fridays and participation of girl students in various
activities. The local Islamic scholars were silent about the issue of
coeducation and Islam. These threats of banning coeducation though were not
successful but certainly it led to dropping of the idea of establishing a
girl’s hostel because that would be an easy target for terrorists.
David also
has a deep insight about Islam and Muslim modernists like Sir Syed Ahmad Khan
and Sir Muhammad Iqbal and their views about education. Their educational
policy certainly was the embodiment of institution of Ijtihad. When Muslims
forgot and abhorred that spirit by closing the gates of Ijtihad, the result was
in the stagnation of knowledge. The essence of education is learning new things
and discovering new areas that will further pave way towards knowledge creation
and building. When Muslims abandoned the spirit of enquiry, pondering and above
all Ijtihad, other people ventured in these areas leaving the Muslim body of
knowledge stagnant. It still is stagnant though a few ripples have been created
and fissures on the door of Ijtihad are evident too. The views of Muslim
modernists were too revolutionary for reactionary Muslim scholars to adopt at
or even to help them take a sympathetic look. Despite David espousing such
Muslim stalwarts it had little impact on the local leaders or decision makers
that could lead to a change of heart.
David also
mentions about the Christian minority of Pakistan and its contribution
particularly to the educational empowerment of Pakistani society. The siphoning
off of college funds that led to a big scandal, tussle among the church
authorities on controlling the college administration has also found its place
in the book. At last David also offers a solution about the crisis and violence
in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province by stating that education and removal of
army from the province will lead to long lasting peace. Overall the book is an
essential addition to the area studies and particularly about the need of
education in combating terrorism. The challenge violence offers to educational
institutions, the grit to keep them functioning amidst threats makes this book
a serious memoir.
-----
M.H.A.
Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar, Kashmir
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/books-documents/terrorism-taliban-pakistan/d/125143
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