This is a tempest in a teacup over Greg Mortenson’s book titled ‘Three cups of tea’ and is missing forest for the trees.

The real forest is the main-stream educational system in Pakistan which is radicalized by Islamic teaching that projects Islam as the only savior in the world. Pakistan is suffering from ‘Saudization’ of its society by the education system that was revised in 1976 by the act of its parliament that, like Saudi Arabia’s system, provides an ideological foundation for violence and future jihadists. It demands that Islam be understood as a complete code of life, and creates in the mind of a school-going child a sense of siege and embattlement by stressing that Islam is under threat everywhere.

The promotion of militarism in Pakistan’s so-called “secular” public schools, colleges and universities had a profound effect upon young minds. Militant jihad became part of the culture on college and university campuses. Armed groups flourished, they invited students for jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan, set up offices throughout the country, collected funds at Friday prayers and declared a war which knew no borders.

Not long ago, Pervez Hoodhbhoy, a professor in an Islamabad University wrote the following:

‘For three decades, deep tectonic forces have been silently tearing Pakistan away from the Indian subcontinent and driving it towards the Arabian peninsula. This continental drift is not physical but cultural, driven by a belief that Pakistan must exchange its South Asian identity for an Arab-Muslim one. This change is by design. Twenty-five years ago, the Pakistani state used Islam as an instrument of state policy. Prayers in government departments were deemed compulsory, floggings were carried out publicly, punishments were meted out to those who did not fast in Ramadan, selection for academic posts in universities required that the candidate demonstrate a knowledge of Islamic teachings and jihad was declared essential for every Muslim. Today, government intervention is no longer needed because of a spontaneous groundswell of Islamic zeal. The notion of an Islamic state – still in an amorphous and diffused form – is more popular now than ever before as people look desperately for miracles to rescue a failing state.’

Like many people who believes in ‘Education is a right and not privilege’, I have also read both of Greg Mortenson’s books and watched Greg Mortenson - 60 Minutes which was aired on CBS News on April 17, 2011. Mortenson claims that he has educated over 60,000 of young children and mostly girls and built over 170 schools in Karakoram -the north west of Pakistan and the Wakhan valley of Afghanistan near the Russia and China border during the last 17 years.
Mortenson was intelligent enough to select Karakoram, the 2nd highest rocky mountain in the world, located on the Pakistan-Chinese border, beyond which it becomes an ocean of snow, where he envisioned writing his first book ‘Three Cups of Tea’. Being a native of the north west of Pakistan, I visited Karakoram Mountains along with a French Professor. I was amazed at the pride of the tall mountains and the scenic beauty of nature. At the same time, I found that it is harder for foreigners to come here because the government is charging them heavy amount and do not have any plan to encourage mountaineers and tourists to contribute to local economy. Our successive governments are busy investing their energies and money in wars instead of investing in education. Mortenson had selected Wakhan - a majestic alpine valley in the border region of Afghanistan and Tajikistan to educate children, build schools and to write his second book ‘Stones Into Schools’. This valley is located in the Pamir Mountains in Central Asia. Mortenson has selected areas where it was not harder for local and foreign media and researchers to attest such splendid education projects that Mortenson had started.
While reading Mortenson’s both well-written books, I had the view that they are based on fiction, mixed with half truth. He describes the harder geography of the area very beautifully and in a dramatic way. He presents his characters such as Haji Ali, Rasheed, Sarfaraz, Sadbar, and Parveen like Hollywood movies characters to impress his readers . His timely stories contributed to connect his education case of Afghan and Pakistani children with US people easily, because the US led western nations are investing blood of its sons and daughters in Afghanistan and Pakistan augmented by tax-payers’ dollars to bring peace in the region and security to its own people. He is also successful to connect his stories with the defeat of Communist Russia in Afghanistan on the hands of ‘Mujahideeen’, ‘Taliban’, and ‘Warlords’ led by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United state and supported by the entire Capitalist world including Communist China. He has beautifully engaged his readers to the anarchic situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan as he refers to the successive presidents and Al-Qaeda leaders to make his storey central to the current global unrest in the mountains of Central Asia.
What did not astonish me at all was that Greg Mortenson received Pakistan’s highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan because leadership in the third world countries are always in search of foreigners to honour them with such awards to do ‘Realpolitik’. It also did not surprise me that he presented his wife and two children - Khyber and Amira; heroes of his work because the North American culture and society functions in an individualist context.
It was the most disturbing factor for me that Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces was chief guest at one of Mortenson’s school inauguration in Afghanistan. It is also strange that how Mortenson was inducted by the U.S. military to lecture and mentor young officers at the Air Force, Naval and West Point academies to share his philosophy of Afghan and Islamic culture with them while educating top -ranking Pentagon brass like General David Petraeus and Admiral EricLarson.
Being inhabitant of the North West of Pakistan and Afghanistan for over 35 years, it made me sad while reading Mortenson’s story that he was kidnapped by Taliban supporters in Waziristan, where he was held as a prisoner for eight days before his captors released him in a sudden and dramatic mystery with details known only to Mortenson till the 60 Minutes show was aired. The show found that four of the supposed abductors where ordinary Wazir Pashtun from FATA who were promised by Mortenson to build schools in the war-raged Waziristan FATA. One of the alleged was Mansoor Khan Masud, who runs FATA Research Centre, Islamabad and also writes for American Foreign Policy Magazine, who says that Mortenson was their guest. Mortenson has done a historic injustice to fabricate that Pashtuns are warriors and against education which is contrary to their customs such as Melmastia (hospitality.
Despite Mortenson’s successes of fame and fortune, he not only failed himself but other philanthropists as well, that one day an intuitive Steve Kroft of CBS will be able to find the whole truth and set the record straight and do some justice to the Pashtuns and Americans. I commend Mortenson for connecting westerners with Pakistani and Afghan children’s education. I wish he could have done it differently.

Mosharref Zaidi says that Mortenson claimed that he was kidnapped by "Taliban" in Waziristan in 1996. That is incorrect.

The Taliban are mentioned on p 155 as having overrun Jalalabad Afghanistan and that this contributed to a flood of refugees to Peshawar, Pakistan. He also writes that young boys were going to Pakistan to join the Taliban.

It's unclear why Mortenson was kept in a compound for several days. He could understand no Pushto. Eventually "Khan" showed up, later explains that there was some kind of "dispute" - presumably about Mortenson being there - that was solved by a jirga. The next day they drove him back to Peshawar. On p 171 "...Mortenson realized, Khan was most likely an emerging Taliban commander."

This is not the same as saying the Taliban were in Pakistan but a recognition that the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is on the Durand Line drawn by the British and that the local people move back and forth because they are all one group.

I wonder if this "Khan" is the one who has now come forward to say that Mortenson was his guest and has defamed him, Khan, or something. Who knows what the truth of all that is. Nothing will resolve exactly what went on in August 1996.

As for Zaidi saying that the "Taliban did not arrive in Pakistan until at least 2001" the Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid wrote this in his book "Taliban" published in 2000. "By 1998, Pakistani Taliban were banning TV and videos in towns along the Pashtun belt." p 93 This is 3 years before 2001.

Further, as Zaidi writes that the state of public education in Pakistan is poor. Mortenson has never claimed that he was out to "solve" this problem. He's just building schools, not running them

Each of us does what ever he or she can to light a candle. Mortenson may be naive and administratively sloppy but he's not grandiose.

I say Zaidi should read his books, then judge. I was impressed by his books but never thought about making a donation to the CAI.

In Mortenson's mind, school buildings = better education. I wonder how he explains the fact that government schools and colleges in Pakistan often have bigger buildings than their private counterparts and yet given a choice people still opt for private education.

Its clear that a trek into the Karakoram hardly made Mortenson an expert on Pakistan's problem, which is why I never understood why he chose not to work with local organizations. There are a number of organizations in Pakistan that focus on education and have the experience and knowledge that would have proved invaluable to Mortenson - they in turn would have benefited from his fame.

And even if Mortenson did want to go in alone, why choose the Karakoram? His schools would've had a better chance of success in a more urban setting where one could find teachers and where parents would perhaps be more willing to send their children to school. This is not to say that these areas are a lost cause, but simply opening up schools won't work unless such schools are part of a broader socio-economic agenda - e.g. Aga Khan Foundation's work in the greater Hunza region.

Well His timely stories contributed to connect his education case of Afghan and Pakistani children with US people easily, because the US led western nations are investing blood of its sons and daughters in Afghanistan and Pakistan augmented by tax-payers’ dollars to bring peace in the region profitsiegereview and security to its own people. He is also successful to connect his stories with the defeat of Communist Russia in Afghanistan on the hands of ‘Mujahideeen’, ‘Taliban’, and ‘Warlords’ led by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United state and supported by the entire Capitalist world including Communist China. He has beautifully engaged his readers to the anarchic situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan as he refers to the successive presidents and Al-Qaeda leaders to make his storey central to the current global unrest in the mountains of Central Asia.

Our successive governments are busy investing their energies and money in wars instead of investing in education. Mortenson had selected Wakhan - a majestic alpine valley in the border region of Afghanistan and Tajikistan to educate children, build schools and to write his second book ‘Stones Into Schools’. This valley is located in the Pamir Mountains in Central Asia. Mortenson has selected areas where it was not harder for local and foreign media and researchers to attest such splendid education projects that Mortenson had started.
While reading Mortenson’s both well-written books, I had the view that they are based on fiction, mixed with half truth. He describes the harder geography of the area very beautifully and in a dramatic way. He presents his characters such as Haji Ali, Rasheed, Sarfaraz, Sadbar, and Parveen like Hollywood movies characters to impress his readers . His timely stories contributed to connect his education case of Afghan and Pakistani children with US people easily, because the US led western nations are investing blood of its sons and daughters in Afghanistan and Pakistan augmented by tax-payers’ dollars to bring peace in the region and security to its own people. He is also successful to connect his stories with the defeat of Communist Russia in Afghanistan on the hands of ‘Mujahideeen’, ‘Taliban’, and ‘Warlords’ led by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United state and supported by the entire Capitalist world including Communist China.