The author tells how the foreign journalists flooded into Lahore after one of the four London bombers of 7/7 attacks was supposedly known to attend one of Madrassas in Lahore. Their perception about Madrassas as militant camp is shocking. The article clearly gives us an image of how foreign journalists think that all the Madrassas in Pakistan are working under terrorists to breed more. A very valid point in my opinion is the statement of a senior Madrassa leader who said that they wanted to be open to Western media so they recognize Madrassa as centre for learning but after covering what they wanted, foreign journalists went back and portrayed everything negatively and completely opposite from the truth, the way they wanted to. Ofcourse that is discouraging for Madrassa administration that even after their cooperation, International media has constantly treated them as extremists and terrorists, whereas they have been teaching peace, harmony and humanity to their students.
*Ahmed Khan of BBC News, Lahore (17th July, 2005)
Educational Institutions are alleged to be breeding and nourishing terrorists. From one side of the isle the Religious Educational Institutes are being accused of spreading fanaticism and exporting terrorism while the other side vehemently protests this contention. The media has played a critical role on spreading this view
ReplyDeleteThere is a gross misconception amongst the western electronic media that the imprint of every major act of International Islamist terrorism invariably passes through Pakistan. This international fallacy has greatly influenced the local people as they believe far more on what they hear than thinking and evaluating an issue critically to reach its root cause
ReplyDeleteAfter 9/11 attacks and 7/7 London bombings, International media has heavily criticized on Islamic institutes of Pakistan. They have been accused of extremism, fundamentalism and terrorism time and time again. Most of these accusations have found to be baseless, with lack of evidence to support many of their claims and many irresponsible statements have been made by Western journalists
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