:: Hikmah @ Ekhwan.Com ::

Education in any form has tremendous effect on any society, country or state at any time. It is well said that you educate a person and you plan for an entire generation. Any form of education has drastic effects on an entire community to a massive extent. A friend of mine pointed ma to an article in NY times on the budget of the US Army in Afghanistan which provoked me to write some on my thoughts. The article read 1 Soldier or 20 Schools in Afghanistan? – NYTimes.com

It was first the US who seeded and fed the Taliban against the Russians and now they reign in the territory. If we look at the picture closely we might see that education has a very deep impact on the whole situation. The word Taliban literally means “Students”. These student were brainwashed and emotionally aroused in the name of religion. One might even call it emotional attyachar. Its very easy to get hold of the human mind when you can create sentiments that ping the deep rooted faith of people. Islam was the key to the door here. Islam does not preach violence. There are several mentions of Jihad in the Quran but those are in self protection. Where not only the existence of the faith is in threat but also the faithful himself and that too under extreme circumstances of physical torture itself. Apart  from that rules are in place that make is a Jihad. A simple example is the difference between cross border firing by troops and declaration of war by a country which can only be done by the highest authority which is not self proclaimed.

Back to the topic, the Taliban induced negative thoughts into young minds and created illusions through the logic called little knowledge is a dangerous thing. They provoked religious sentiments and declared an unlawful war on what they thought to be their enemy. Islam became a tool to create intolerance. I would like to point out that in Mahabharat, Krishana preaches Arjun the righteousness of pulling the weapon against the unjust and tyranny. But it was in a lawful war situation. If someone just pickup a gun today and shoots an X person for his wrong doings following the instructions of Gita he would be held a criminal. Islam similarly does not approve the wrong doings of certain people against the faith but neither does it approve the such an unlawful self proclaimed war which by no means can be translated to Jihad. Rather terrorism.

Education was used to induce misconceptions into young minds and an army of a generation was created called Taliban. Everywhere, even in India and places like Kashmir where India flexes its military muscles to protect innocent people, why does the government not invest even a minute percentage of that money to educate people there.

If the Taliban were created out of education in the wrong way why not treat that problem with a similar cause. Educate and induce tolerance. If they used Islam in the wrong direction, use its actual values to create the path of light.

The army may be needed to protect the lives of people but the might of education is far reaching and having deep impacts in creating harmony, developing clearer minds, spreading tolerance and a growing nation.