Et tu, the educated?

Educated militants and support for militancy on social media

While communication from the Taliban has repeatedly asserted that Malala Yousufzai was not targeted for her stance on education, it is as an ambassador for the promoted “education vs. ignorance” scenario in north-west Pakistan that she has received worldwide recognition. The reaction has been typical: the reactionary, liberal leaps into fist-pumping and reasserts its simplistic ‘good vs. evil’ narrative; the right-leaning majority after the initial shock and, in most cases, concern and grief, falls back to its conspiracy-sensing ways after the phenomenal coverage afforded to Malala at the perceived expense of the anti-American sentiment; the United States initiates a convenient extension of her plight into indirect vindication of their war crimes.

That it was more a case of freedom of speech (as opposed to education) versus oppression is an argument to be dealt with separately. The question examined here is: Is more widespread education in Pakistan, of which Malala is now the mascot, likely to have weakened religious militancy as a parallel outcome? When speaking of education, it is assumed the word encompasses study of sciences and arts as opposed to tutoring on religion only.

Many of those debating the effectiveness of education against terrorism cite examples of the Taliban recruits who have had formal education. It is an argument not without merit but it fails to take into account how and where the potential recruits have been brought up. It can be theorised that, in general, an educated individual with an educated background is less likely to go headlong into militancy than an individual with the same education but a less educated background. Bias and prejudice is formed early into an individual’s life, more than one generation of education can and is at times required to dilute it or strengthen the ability to deal with it rationally.

Secondly, and relatedly, individual examples make their point with their backs to the atmosphere that accompanies widespread education. An air of competitiveness and drive towards tangible professional achievement is the natural parallel of an educated society. Besides increasing an individual’s capacity to reason in every aspect of one’s life, education increases the barrier for those even prone to succumbing to the emotional rewards of militancy. Years of physical, financial and even emotional investment into education makes a plunge into the realm of less tangibly rewarding pursuits significantly less likely. Prevalence of educated individuals sharing pro-militant content is a symptom of the ‘mentality vs initiative’ scenario: strong grievance and angst against perceived transgression of the foreign powers; bias for action humbled by a desire to achieve something for oneself.

More profound is perhaps the effect education has on the perception of power. An educated society is more likely to perceive that while the ability to exact violence will always be an important form of power, it is not only strongly dependent on the power extracted from wealth, and with each passing decade, increasingly on knowledge, but also being more strongly challenged by these two manifestations. Relative significance of each of these forms of power is obviously exceedingly complex and debatable, but the significance of perception is by all means considerable.

Lastly, while arguing for education, the contribution towards violence by the intrinsic nature of the atmosphere and education in a madrassah cannot be diluted. Adolescent, or youth, who have spent, in an overly religious environment virtually every hour of the day, the better part of their lives, are easier prey in the hands of the wrong elements that. The ‘wrong elements’ require little more than repeated, persuasive rhetoric and imagery for recruitment. Madrassas that offer education in sciences and arts in parallel with religion are clearly far better. However, adolescents, and youth in a persistently religious environment still pose a lesser challenge as they are distanced from their kin, and more emotionally detached from world outside the madrassah with each passing day.

While the above points have been made without examining cause and effect and the situation requires more than an all-other-variables-constant analysis, an assertion of the importance of education is required in the face of increasing scepticism against the effectiveness of education even as a long-term solution. At the very least, the reasoning behind such scepticism (which, as discussed, involves examples of educated militants and support for militancy on social media) must be debated.

The writer is an engineer from Lahore. He is Regional Head TRP, PTI.