Pakistan must confront Saudi-financed madressahs

[dhanya_podena]

@khoji

DD, you need a detailed reply, but for now I would only reply to this:

This would have been true if Saudi money to extremist madressahs was happening in Pakistan ALONE. But it is a world wide phenomenon.

PBS - frontline: saudi time bomb?: analyses: madrassas
Richard Holbrooke: U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in the Clinton administration
I think that one of the tragedies of this story is that the Saudi Arabians exported their problem by financing the schools, the madrassas, all through the Islamic world. I saw this in Uzbekistan a few years after Uzbekistan got out of the Soviet Union, became an independent state in cities like Tashkent and Samarkand, where the Saudis were funding these schools teaching Koranic studies and creating a class of people for whom education was simply the Holy Book, the Koran.

Consider these two arguments of yours:

• extremism is not in Saudi interest because “extremists always want to acquire holy lands under their control to get more legibility”
• Saudi supported Taliban as a favor to Pakistan.

These two arguments are in opposition to each other. What is important for Saudi? A very obvious threat to its own security by supporting extremists or favoring Pakistan?

The answer should be the former. Why would Saudi put its own security in danger only to grant favor to Pakistan?

Also, if Saudi endorsed Taliban’s radical regime as a favor to Pakistan alone then why did UAE do that too? And why not any other country grant such “favors” to Pakistan while putting their own security at risk?

I think it is time for Pakistanis to rise above their sectarian bias and look at what Saudi/UAE/etc. financing has done to Pakistan’s destruction.
All money coming to Pakistan from anywhere in the world should be welcome. But this money should only be used in establishing research facilities and universities. It should not be used to make future suicide bombers.

Funding on request of Pakistan was pre-9/11 thing and working against these groups post 9/11.

If you say that Saudis funded Madrassas pre-9/11 to propagate their version of Islam i will not contest it, so did Iranians and are still doing.

The post 9/11, is totally different, they themselves realized that lot of this money was channeled to extremist and it was stopped altogether. Some people in their personal capacity are still doing it, is possible, but i don;t see any thing to imply Saudi government or Saudi society as a whole being behind organizing or funding extremists anywhere in Pakistan.