More good stuff from PRT K'Har, shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions,
Section 29, of the Copyright Act.
Canada backs plan to open Afghan version of Islamic school in Kandahar
MURRAY BREWSTER, Canadian Press, 5 Jan 07
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - The Afghan government hopes to open a madrassa - a school of Islamic education - in Kandahar province this year with the active encouragement of Canadians.
The country's Education Ministry has drawn up an $890,000 pilot program for a 16-classroom school, with a dormitory for 300 students, to be located in the vicinity of the provincial capital.
Unlike madrassas in northern Pakistan seen by the West as breeding grounds for fire-breathing extremism, the Afghan model would be based on Hanafi, a less fundamentalist form of Islam.
The plan is outlined in a Jan. 7, 2007, position paper written by the ministry. A senior education official confirmed the pilot program but refused to be quoted because he was not authorized to speak on the topic.
Support for the idea was percolating at the ground level from the Canadian Civilian-Military Co-operation team - known as CIMIC - in Zhari district where NATO fought a bloody campaign last fall to root out Taliban insurgents.
"They see education as one of the keys to solving their problems around this area," said Sgt. John Courtney, one of two CIMIC members at Patrol Base Wilson west of Kandahar.
Madrassas are religious schools that can substitute for elementary and higher education in some communities.
Many of the hard-core Taliban commanders that Canadian troops faced on the battlefield last year were educated in Pakistan, in Saudi-financed madrassas that teach Wahhabism, a stern and rigid form of Islam.
With the absence of religious education in Afghanistan, many parents have been forced over the years to send their children to Pakistan. Some end up in fundamentalist madrassas where the curriculum is more about making war on infidels than on education.
With that in mind, Courtney and his partner, Sgt. Chris Augustine, suggested to the district shura - or council - that two madrassas be established, one in the Zhari district and the other in neighbouring Panjwaii. Both of these farming regions, which form an arid arc west of Kandahar, have long been pro-Taliban.
By establishing Islamic schools, "we can avoid sending a lot of these local kids to foreign countries where they are negatively influenced in terms of ways and teachings," said Courtney, a reservist from Kingston, Ont.
The district elders support the idea and "were a bit surprised we suggested it," he said.
The desire of Afghans to have their own religious education is something that even the Taliban recognize. A few weeks ago, the Taliban made the surprising announcement that they intended to open schools in regions they claim to control.
The key to making madrassas non-threatening is in the curriculum.
Ministry officials intend to travel to Jordan later this year to see what the Jordanians are doing right that can be drafted into what would be taught at the new school in Kandahar, the senior Afghan education official said.
Canada supports education in Afghanistan and by extension this endeavour, said Gavin Buchan, the political director of the Canadian provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar.
It is not something western countries should fear, he said.
The Afghans "have a right to have a religious education component in their school system, in much the same way as we would have done with Catholic school systems in Newfoundland when I was growing up," said Buchan.
He has confidence that the country's Hanafi Islamic tradition, which is more liberal and generally more open to new ideas, will exclude intolerant militant teachings and would be open to a great deal of public scrutiny.
"I think the government would maintain a very close oversight of schools like that," he said.
"And when you talk to the Afghan government, they do say they would like Afghans who wish to study Islam in depth to be brought up in that tradition in their own country, rather than go to Pakistan where they might be exposed to extremist teachings."
Throughout the 1980s and much of the '90s, Saudi wealth and charities fuelled an explosive growth of madrassas throughout the Islamic world. Students of different ages, some as young nine, are taught to read and then take religious studies.
Some madrassas, particularly those near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, preach fundamentalist doctrines. Many of their students are poor and have few other options for education. They became easy recruits for the extremist Taliban movement.
President Hamid Karzai's government, supported by donor countries, will be competing against these well-financed Saudi schools.
Kandahar PRT conducts mine awareness training for children
ISAF news release #2007-089, 5 Feb 07
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (5 February) – The Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), at Camp Nathan Smith, conducted mine and unexploded ordnance awareness training for local children in Kandahar yesterday.
“The aim of this training session is to teach the kids three simple steps to follow if they find a mine or unexploded ordnance: don’t touch it; stay away from it and tell an adult, a policeman or an ISAF soldier,” said Master Cpl. Brendan Hynes.
Following the training, PRT members provided the children with a snack and donated rubber boots, socks, gloves, backpacks and toys. One child also received medical attention for an infection on his foot.
Many of the children who attended the training previously received medical attention during a medical outreach patrol conducted by the Kandahar PRT at the Kandahar City fire brigade’s compound on Jan. 7.
