In the case of many Muslims as with many other religious folks, education is certainly no passport to Enlightenment, in fact in the case of Muslim fundamentalism & terrorism, education seems to have the opposite effect.
Al Queda's second in command after Osama, is Ayman Zawahiri-who has a Masters degree in Surgery & is the son of a pharmacist & chemistry Professor father & comes from a family of doctors & other eminent professionals. How many Egyptians' can boast of this sort of educational achievements & family lineage?
The Pakistani terrorist who murdered Daniel Pearl- Ahmed Omar Sheikh had a degree from the London School of Economics. Mohammed Atta of 9\11 fame also came from a similar high achieving academic background.
A lot of people seem eager to blame Muslim terrorism on Muslim poverty or lack of opportunity or something similar- guess because thats' an easy answer & a politically correct one.
Its near impossible in our world to be politically incorrect & place blame on the residue of hate in the Quran itself (similar to the Bible) & the violence in Prophet Mohammed's character, a speciality of the Quran. Those who claim jihad is a duty to fight our inner devils might offer an alternate interpretation, but all the references in the Sahih Bukhari & 1400 year of Muslim history make it a textually incorrect one & an ahistorical one.
Further, there's the example of Prophet Mohammed, Christians' prone to violence were placated with, What would Jesus do?" & for all the violence in the OT, Christ's conduct is a very valid source of pacifism, while there are few acts of intolerance or violence that Mohammed abstained from.
This school can churn out enlightened scholars who'll make a positive change in the society of Pakstan & the future Ummah, or it may make it unneccessary for the future Ahmed Omar Sheikh to go to London for his Economics degree, he can get his qualifications here & plan & carry out his attacks right on Pakistani soil as well.
A platitude-without-thought syndrome seems to affect many intellectuals who aren't courageous enough to look at truths uncomfortable to their good selves. Most Muslim terrorists come from middle class backgrounds(science or engineering) who's angst comes from the unfortunate fact that they're losing their power over women & over other men-that Islam at least in its traditional forms seems to be dying & they make a last ditch attempt-through even appalling acts of terrorism & death threats to stall this death.
The poor have enough worries regarding their day to day survival-these things don't bother them as much.
At worst, since religion often plays a bigger part in their lives than the well to do-they may vote fundies into power or become foot soldiers in the global jihad, the uncomfortable truth is that the leaders are nearly always a multi millionaire's son Osama or a surgeon Zawahiri.
Topic: Pakistan to battle fundamentalism with science