By Jawad Mazhar, BosNewsLife Special Correspondent reporting from Pakistan
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)– A key government official has pledged to re-open Christian schools and other education institutions for girls in Pakistan’s troubled North West Frontier Province (NWFP) after they were attacked by Muslim militants.
NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told BosNewsLife, that “all the schools destroyed by the insurgents would be reopened and renovated.”
It came amid concern Wednesday, February 4, that more Christian girls schools and colleges in Pakistan’s volatile North West Frontier Province (NWFP) would be attacked by Muslim militants after several blasts in recent weeks, police and government officials said.
Local sources speaking on condition of anonymity told BosNewsLife that militants linked to the terror groups Al-Qaeda and the Taliban blew up several girls’ schools after issuing a January 15 deadline to halt all education to girls and women in the area.
MORE THREATS
Besides educational institutes, churches and Christian homes are also under threat of attacks, officials said. The United Nations children’s fund, UNICEF, said that before the latest attacks, terrorists already destroyed over 170 schools in NWFP, most of which girls’ schools, including some run by Christians.
Among those attacked in recent weeks was the ‘Jesus and Mary Convent girls high school’ in Mardan, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) south-east of the province’s main city, Peshawar.
In addition, Islamic extremists bombed five schools in the Swat Valley, January 19, as part of what Christians and advocacy groups describe is “a campaign against girls’ education.” No one was killed or injured in these blasts because schools were closed for the winter break, locals added.
However are concerns that the situation in NWFP could become the same as conditions were in neighboring Afghanistan under Taliban rule, when education for girls was banned and most of the women were forced to abandon their jobs and stay at home, Christians said.
REVENGE ATTACK?
Local Police Chief Dilawar Bangash said in comments monitored by BosNewsLife that it was not immediately clear if the Jan 19th school attacks were in “direct response to the government’s recent pledge,” to continue education programs for girls.
The Pakistani government asked the Pakistani forces to protect the schools against attacks by militants.
There have been reports that Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants may “allow” the girls’ schools to teach up to the level of grade 4, however officials have made clear that such an offer would be unacceptable.
Minority Christians in NWFP have expressed concerns over growing Islamic extremism in the area and attempts to impose strict Islamic law in the region.
In a period of much discouraging news, this comes as very good news. If Pakistan is to emerge from these troubled times they must reopen their schools for minority faiths and for girls. The Provincial authorities are to be applauded for their resolve!!
As long as the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, they will be for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens. This is the case in:
United States — Muslim 0.6%
Australia — Muslim 1.5%
Canada — Muslim 1.9%
China — Muslim 1.8%
Italy — Muslim 1.5%
Norway — Muslim 1.8%
At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and
among street gangs. This is happening in:
Denmark — Muslim 2%
Germany — Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom — Muslim 2.7%
Spain — Muslim 4%
Thailand — Muslim 4.6%
From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to
their percentage of the population. For example, they will push for the
introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby
securing food preparation jobs for Muslims.
They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply.
This is occurring in:
France — Muslim 8%
Philippines — Muslim 5%
Sweden — Muslim 5%
Switzerland — Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands — Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago — Muslim 5.8%
At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow
them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under Sharia, the Islamic
Law. The ultimate goal of Islamists is to establish Sharia law over the
entire world.
When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase
lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions. In Paris ,
we are already seeing car-burnings.
Any non-Muslim action offends Islam, and results in uprisings and
threats, such as in Amsterdam , with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and
films about Islam. Such tensions are seen daily, particularly in Muslim
sections, in:
Guyana — Muslim 10%
India — Muslim 13.4%
Israel — Muslim 16%
Kenya — Muslim 10%
Russia — Muslim 15%
After reaching 20% , nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, such as in:
Ethiopia — Muslim 32.8%
At 40% , nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare, such as in:
Bosnia — Muslim 40%
Chad — Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon — Muslim 59.7%
From 60% , nations experience unfettered persecution of non-believers
of all other religions (including non-conforming Muslims), sporadic
ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and Jizya,
the tax placed on infidels, such as in:
Albania — Muslim 70%
Malaysia — Muslim 60.4%
Qatar — Muslim 77.5%
Sudan — Muslim 70%*
After 80% , expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some State-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide, as these nations drive out the infidels, and move toward 100% Muslim, such as has been experienced and in some ways is on-going in:
Bangladesh — Muslim 83%
Egypt — Muslim 90%
Gaza — Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia — Muslim 86.1%
Iran — Muslim 98%
Iraq — Muslim 97%
Jordan — Muslim 92%
Morocco — Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan — Muslim 97%
Palestine — Muslim 99%
Syria — Muslim 90%
Tajikistan — Muslim 90%
Turkey — Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates — Muslim 96%
100% will usher in the peace of ‘Dar-es-Salaam’ — the Islamic House of Peace. Here there’s supposed to be peace, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrasses are the only schools, and the Koran is the only word, such as in:
Afghanistan — Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia — Muslim 100%
Somalia — Muslim 100%
Yemen — Muslim 100%
Unfortunately, peace is never achieved, as in these 100% states the
most radical Muslims intimidate and spew hatred, and satisfy their blood
lust by killing less radical Muslims, for a variety of reasons.