It is hard to fathom the pivotal role the United States played in nourishing a violent, fundamentalist mentality in generations of young Afghans. But starting in the 1980s the US government spent more than 50 million dollars to publish textbooks through the University of Nebraska that promoted a fanatic, militaristic agenda. The Washington Post called it the Jihad Schoolbook Scandal in a March 2002 article, describing the books as filled with talk of jihad and warlike images. It taught children to count using illustrations of tanks, missiles and landmines. The books were shipped into Soviet -occupied AFghanistan to fuel a jihad against the Russians, but, according to the Post, they made up the core curriculum in the Afghan school system long after the Soviets were defeated. Even the Taliban used the American produced books, though the radical movement scratched out human faces in keeping with its strict fundamentalist code. RAISING MY VOICE, 2009
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 05:38:39 +0000