Pakistan, Policy Makers, Military 

The rise of Islamic militancy in Pakistan during
2008 and 2009 and the resulting military operation
in the Swat valley can be traced back to the
inculcation of radical ideologies among the youth in
the Frontier region. There has been considerable
disagreement among analysts about the role of
educational institutions, such as madrassas,2 in
terrorism. In 2005, Peter Bergen and Swaty Pandey,
in an influential series of articles, stated that
concern over Islamic education was all a ‘madrassa
myth.’ Basing their analysis on a controversial
World Bank study about the actual number of
madrassas in Pakistan, Bergen and Pandey had
argued that “while madrassas are an important issue
in education and development in the Muslim world,
they are not and should not be considered a threat to
the United States.” This is because of their
relatively small number and since terrorists who
attacked the West had largely not been educated in
madrassas. 

8 p.; 24 cm