World Policy Institute

"A" Is for Allah, "J" Is for JihadAuthor(s): Craig DavisSource: World Policy Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring, 2002), pp. 90-94Published by: The MIT Press and the World Policy InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40209794 .Accessed: 01/05/2011 02:23

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KNOWLEDGE Craig Davis is a dual Ph.D. candidate in the departments of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. He conducted fieldwork on Afghan education in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 1999-2000, as a David L. Boren graduate fellow.

"A" Is for Allah, "J" Is for Jihad Craig Davis

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Edu- cation Center for Afghanistan, located in Peshawar, Pakistan, and operated by the Afghan mujahidin (holy warriors), pub- lished a series of primary education text- books replete with images of Islamic mili- tancy. These schoolbooks provided the mu- jahidin (who, after a ten-year struggle, drove the Soviet occupying forces from Afghanistan in 1989) with a medium for promoting political propaganda and incul- cating values of Islamic militancy into a new generation of holy warriors prepared to conduct jihad against the enemies of Islam. Consider the following introduction to the Persian alphabet in a first-grade language arts book:

Alif [is for] Allah. Allah is one.

Bi [is for] Father (baba). Father goes to the mosque...

Pi Rs for] Five (pan/). Islam has five pillars...

Ti [is for] Rifle (tufang). Javad obtains rifles for the Mujahidin...

Jim [is for] Jihad. Jihad is an obligation. My mom went to the

jihad. Our brother gave water to the Mu-

jahidin... Dal [is for] Religion (din).

Our religion is Islam. The Russians are the enemies of the religion of Islam...

Zhi [is for] Good news (muzhdih). The Mujahidin missiles rain down like dew on the Russians. My brother gave me good news that the Russians in our country taste defeat...

Shin [is for] Shakir. Shakir conducts jihad with the sword. God becomes happy with the defeat of the Rus- sians...

Zal [is for] Oppression (zulm).

Oppression is forbidden. The Russians are

oppressors. We perform jihad against the

oppressors... Vav [is for] Nation (vatn).

Our nation is Afghanistan.... The

Mujahidin made our country famous.... Our Muslim people are defeating the commu- nists. The Mujahidin are making our dear

country free.

As in this passage, the promotion of vio- lence for the sake of Islam is the predomi- nate theme throughout the mujahidin text- book series in both mathematics and lan- guage arts for grades one through six.

Although these violent images were offi- cially edited out of the schoolbooks in 1992, my fieldwork in Afghanistan and among the Afghan refugee population in Pakistan in 1999 and 2000 revealed that the unedited versions of these textbooks were still in use in both countries. Aid workers reported that the unedited versions promoting violence occasionally surfaced in classrooms in Pak- istan and were sanctioned by the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Peshawar's sec- ondhand bookshops regularly stocked the old textbooks, which are filled with mes- sages of Islamic militancy and illustrations of tanks, rocket launchers, and automatic weapons.

When I visited Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, in May 2000, 1 discovered that the

90 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL • SPRING 2002

stores stocking Taliban-approved textbooks were selling freshly printed copies of the old, unrevised mujahidin texts. Reports coming out of Kabul confirm the continued use of these schoolbooks, even as the new

from war was asked, "What did you do in the war?" He answered, "I cut both legs off an enemy at the knees." When asked why he did not cut off the enemy s head, the boy answered, "Someone else had already cut it

interim govern- ment assumed power. These text- books glorify mar- tyrdom, celebrate jihad, and speak of execution of "the enemy." How- ever, such mes- sages and images of violence aimed at children are by no means a recent phenomenon. Con- sider this poem from a first-grade language arts text- book, published in 1970:

Detail of an illustration from a first-grade language arts textbook from the monarchist period. This book was purchased in Kabul at a stall selling used books in May 2000.

off." These are but

two instances in which educational materials were used to train young minds in a fanatical form of loyalty to the nation. The hos- tile imagery was part of the official curriculum dur- ing the reign (1933-73) of King Zahir Shah, the 88-year-old exile who has lived in Rome since 1973 and

On the road to our independence, Our bodies, our heads, our possessions,

We will sacrifice, We will sacrifice.

If, with designs on our land, Our dirty enemies Come forward one step,

We will cut off their feet, We will cut off their legs, We will cut off their legs.

If, in the direction of our land, If, in the direction of our land,

The unjust enemy If he casts a sharp glance,

We will pluck out his eyes, We will pluck out his eyes.

A joke in fifth-grade language-arts school- book from the same period displays a ma- cabre sense of humor: A boy returning

to whom many Afghans still turn for a sense of legitimacy and stability.

A new series of Afghan textbooks was developed during the period of communist government in Afghanistan, which stretched from 1978 under Nur Muhammad Taraki's rule - and the subsequent Soviet invasion in 1979 - to Muhammad Nagibullah s fall in 1992. These textbooks promoted Marxist ideology within an Afghan cultural context. In "Martyrs," a poem printed in a fourth- grade textbook, the students learned that they were the "martyrs of Western oppres- sion." Martyrdom and sacrifice were stressed as necessary components of the communist revolution and resistance against the enemy: "agents of the British," "agents of colonial- ism," and "agents of Western oppression." These all were euphemisms for the mu- jahidin, who formed the militant resistance against the communist government after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December

"A" Is for Allah, "J" Is for Jihad 91

1979. Ironically, the term "mujahidin" was avoided in the textbooks of the time.

Revolution.... Boundless glory to the mothers of the heroes and the proletariat

l nis series was still in limited use in May 2000 in some Afghan schools in the region, including in Estiqlal Lycee, a small coeducational Afghan elementary school in Islamabad, Pakistan. Almost half of the 236 students then at the lycee were girls, many of whom had come from Afghanistan after 1996, when the Tal- iban seized power and implemented policies that denied girls ac- cess to education past grade three.

One reason the school uses these books may be because women tend to fare better in the commu- nist-era textbooks than in most of the other series. The text- books attempted to appeal to young

"Jihad - Often many different wars and conflicts arise among people, which cause material damages and loss of human life. If these wars and disputes occur among people for the sake of community, nation, territory, or even because of verbal differences, and for the sake of progress..." This page is from a third-grade language arts textbook dating from the mujahidin period. A copy of the book was purchased new in Kabul in May 2000.

women or the nation."

Ironically, the emphasis these text- books placed on women's participa- tion in Afghani- stan's communist revolution may have played into the hands of the Is- lamic extremists who stripped Af- ghan women of their rights when they gained control of the country.

Far more violent, religiously oriented, and potentially dam- aging to Afghan children was the next generation of textbooks, developed in Peshawar in the late 1980s by a com- mittee of Afghan educators under the auspices of the sev- en-party alliance of mujahidin, who

Afghan girls by stressing the important role that women played in the April Revolution, as the Afghan communist revolution was called. Mothers, female combatants, and the women of the proletariat were elevated to hero status at the expense of the revolution's enemies: "Eternal glory to the nation's hero- ic martyrs who have sacrificed their own lives in the struggle against the enemies of the April Revolution and of the people of Afghanistan.... Women combatants of the nation! Become active participants in the social, political, and economic life of the homeland, and strengthen... the April

formed the legiti- mate political and military resistance to the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul. These textbooks aimed both to counterbalance the Marxist ideology of the communist se- ries and to indoctrinate young Afghan chil- dren in Islamic militancy. Thus this sub- traction problem, from a third-grade mathe- matics textbook: "One group of mujahidin attack 50 Russian soldiers. In that attack 20 Russians were killed. How many Rus- sians fled?"

A fourth-grade mathematics textbook poses the following problem: "The speed of a Kalashnikov bullet is 800 meters per

92 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL • SPRING 2002

second. If a Russian is at a distance of 3,200 meters from a mujahid, and that mujahid aims at the Russian's head, calculate how

aware of Afghan "religious and cultural sen- sitivities" during the war with the Soviets. Moreover, the University of Nebraska did

many seconds it will take for the bullet to strike the Russian in the forehead."

Another irony is that this textbook se- ries was underwritten by U.S. grants. One of the responsibilities of the mujahidin-op- erated Education Center for Afghani- stan was to write, print, and distribute textbooks. The ECA was funded by the Education Program for Afghanistan at the University of Ne- braska at Omaha (UNO), under a $50 million grant from the United States Agency for Interna- tional Development that ran from Sep- tember 1986 through June 1994. The UNO program staff chose to ignore the images of Islamic militancy in the children's text- books during the first five years of the program.

Raheem Yaseer, an Afghan educator

"Story - Dear students, I will tell you the story of crimes committed by atheist Russians who were able to material- ize over our land due to the carelessness of one group of Mujahidin. You had better listen well and be aware of the results that carelessness and lack of concern can have.

It was on a dark autumn night that merciless Russian forces launched a heavy attack near our village. With strong faith and in complete unity, the brave and zealous Mujahidin took position. Since the forces of the atheists were very numerous, the zealous Mujahidin placed one armed group [there] for the protection of the region and the other groups raced in an orderly fashion toward the enemy to confront it. The enemies of religion and the homeland, having MIG airplanes and helicopters..." This page is from a fifth-grade language arts textbook from the

mujahidin period. A copy of the book was purchased new in Kabul in May 2000.

not wish to be seen as imposing Ameri- can values on Af- ghan educators.1

After the Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the Education Pro- gram for Afghan- istan - under in- creasing pressure from Afghan parents and teachers, and various aid organ- izations - decided in 1991 to remove the militant images from the mujahidin textbook series. The revision process was completed by 1992. Educators commonly refer to the edited versions as the re- vised UNO textbooks, which are widely used in Pakistan and Afghanistan today.

However, two years ago, Joyce Gachiri, a project officer on education for the Afghanistan Country Office of UNICEF located in Islamabad, reported

who worked at the UNO office in Peshawar during the early years of the program and now acts as the campus coordinator for the program in Om- aha, defends the decision to allow the mu- jahidin parties to develop the violent con- tent of the textbooks free of outside inter- vention. The staff, he says, was acutely

seeing many of the unrevised mujahidin books in Taliban-con- trolled Afghanistan as well as in the pro- vince of Badakhshan, which was then in the hands of the anti-Taliban Northern Al- liance.2 During my visit to Kabul in May 2000, 1 purchased an entire series of the unrevised textbooks.

"A" Is for Allah, "J" Is for Jihad 93

According to Ahmad Shah Durani, the printing press manager at the Agency Coor- dinating Body for Afghan Relief (acbar) in Peshawar - the organization responsible for printing the revised UNO textbooks - the unedited mujahidin textbooks were not printed by acbar after 1992. When I confronted him in June 2000 with new copies of the violence-filled unrevised text- books I had purchased in Kabul, he said that the inferior quality of paper and ink used pointed to an independent printing press in Peshawar.

The appearance of these unedited text- books freshly printed in Peshawar and sold at textbook shops in Kabul some eight years after they were to have been replaced sug- gests that the Taliban wished to inspire a new generation of militants with the mes- sage of jihad. But the Taliban, who came to power in 1996, may not be entirely to blame. Between 1992 and 1996, militant factions of mujahidin ruled and battled over Kabul. Thus it is likely that these textbooks never fell out of favor with the mujahidin leadership, who were responsible for the militant content in the first place.

Much has been written since September 1 1 about the madrasa (theological school) system of education in Pakistan and Af- ghanistan. In the wake of the Soviet inva- sion of Afghanistan, extremist Muslims in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere helped to fund the madrassas, many of which have become vehicles for inculcating militant values in students. The most violent product of the madrasa system are the Taliban, who pro- moted absolute theocracy, public militancy, violent repression, and jihad in conjunction with terrorist groups. Even though the Tal- iban has been crushed, it would be a mis- take to underestimate the political force of the madrasa system. Because of the inability of both the Afghan and Pakistani govern-

ments to provide universal education within their respective nations, many parents still look to madrassas to fill the void. In other cases, many students attending secular schools in the morning regularly study at madrassas in the afternoon. Recent estimates suggest that between 10 and 15 percent of Pakistan's 45,000 madrassas promote vio- lence; if true, the next generation of gradu- ates will likely be a political force to be reckoned with.

One of the greatest challenges to the es- tablishment of a lasting peace in Afghani- stan and to the success of representative government there may lie in reforming the country's educational system. But as the new interim government assumed power in Kabul, the future of Afghan education was unclear. Will the mujahidin, who are once again in a position to influence policy, insist on teaching Islamic militancy to school- children? Will Afghan children once again be exhorted to cut off the legs and pluck out the eyes of their "dirty enemies"? If so, Afghanistan's road away from violent unrest will be a long one indeed. •

The translations from the Persian for the textbook illustrations were provided by Nahid Seyedsayamdost.

Notes This essay is drawn from a longer, unpublished analysis, "Nationalism, Revolution, and Jihad: Im-

ages of Violence in Afghan Primary Education Text-

books," the research for which was made possible by a David L. Boren graduate fellowship. The author

would like to thank Jamsheed Choksy, Paul Losen-

sky, and M. Nazif Shahrani for their comments and

insights. 1 . Interviews with the author, December 5 and

7, 2001. 2. Conversation with the author, March 30,

2000.

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