OBAMA SENDING AID TO ISLAMIC SCHOOLS
Studies identified as 'recitation and memorization' of Quran
A
portion of the $120 million the Obama administration is infusing into
Nigerian education programs fund Islamic schools that exclusively teach
students “the recitation and memorization” of the Quran, government
documents reveal.
The
Northern Education Initiative Plus, or NEI+, project seeks to broaden
access to education while strengthening literacy skills of the
predominantly Muslim population of northern Nigeria, according to
procurement documents WND located through routine database research.
Obama
wants to increase the number of schools that offers an expanded “core”
of subjects, including Islamic schools that currently offer little or no
academic options.
Among
other primary objectives of the five-year program is the modernization
of these educational institutions by increasing the quality of teacher
training and promoting the use of proven, internationally recognized
teaching methods.
Northern
Nigeria, however, is home to the Islamic jihadist group Boko Haram,
whose name is loosely translated “Western education is sin” or “Western
education is forbidden.”
The U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, mentions the role of religious conflict in disrupting regional education efforts yet
fails to identify Boko Haram and its violent jihad, such as the group’s
kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls earlier this year.
The
Obama administration initially declined to designate Boko Haram as a
terrorist organization, despite the group’s frequent attacks on
government as well as civilian groups.
The attacks included multiple incidents of murdering Christian worshipers during church services.
Indeed, as WND reported in 2012, the
administration once took the position that northern Nigerian violence
was mistakenly characterized as a religious conflict, classifying it as a
tribal dispute over land.
Last
year, however, in response to congressional pressure, the State
Department relented and slapped the terrorist label on Boko Haram.
The administration likewise has since sought to deploy advisers to
Nigeria to assess and improve safety conditions of U.S. consulates,
personnel and recipients of $1.2 billion in U.S. government-aid programs
currently in operation
Propagating extremism
USAID
acknowledges that persistent conflict, particularly in the northern
region, has contributed to Nigeria’s poverty and overall national
fragility.
Religion,
politics and ethnicity, intertwined with corruption, poverty and
insecurity, “have shaped the education system in Nigeria and altered
access to and quality and delivery of education.”
The
USAID contractor, therefore, must integrate a “conflict-sensitive
approach” to changing the culture of education-delivery in northern
Nigeria, making sure to “avoid reinforcing stereotypes and exclusion”
when designing the NEI+ program.
“Education
can help promote social cohesion, contribute to identity formation,
build peace, and bridge the gap between humanitarian assistance and
sustainable development,” it says.
“However,
education can also undermine these processes. When it is not provided
responsibly, education can be exclusionary, oppressive, exploitative and
corrupt, and it can propagate extremism.”
U.S. policy objectives
Bringing
an end to extreme poverty and creating a democratic Nigerian society –
particularly one willing to work with the U.S. government on matters of
global security and prosperity – “is critically important” to the Obama
administration, according the project’s Statement of Work, or SOW.
“The
U.S. and Nigeria share extensive economic interests, represented by the
$8.1 billion of U.S. foreign direct investment in Nigeria in 2012 and
the $11.6 billion of Nigerian crude oil that the U.S. imported in 2013,”
the SOW says.
“This
highly profitable bilateral trading relationship will only be
strengthened by the ascension of growing numbers of Nigerians out of
extreme poverty and into the middle class.”
Overall annual aid to Nigeria has grown incrementally
since Obama’s first term, rising from a fiscal year 2009 total of about
$600 million to $721 million under the administration’s fiscal year
2015 request.
Schools, Islamic and secular
The
NEI+ endeavor will utilize a prime contractor to partner with a wide
variety of Islamic and secular institutions in Bauchi, Sokoto and one
other northern state yet to be selected, the agency said last week in
response to contractor questions.
A
combination of government-controlled public schools, non-formal
learning centers, or NFLCs, and religious institutions of various
designations – including schools labeled as Quranic, Islamiyya and
Tsangaya, respectively – could receive assistance.
Islamiyya
schools, like their Quranic counterparts, teach students to memorize
and recite Islamic religious texts but differ by also offering advanced
religious studies in “scriptural” and legal subjects.
Some
Islamiyya facilities also offer a government-sanctioned academic
curriculum that includes English, mathematics, social studies and
science, “whereas others are informally supported extensions of Quranic
schools,” an amendment to agency Solicitation no. SOL-620-14-000012 says.
“Tsangaya”
in the Hausa language means “learning center,” and Tsangaya schools
typically are associated with male-only boarding institutions. But in
some northern Nigerian states, “no distinction is made between Tsangaya
and Quranic schools,” USAID acknowledged in the amended document.
In
addition to seeking cooperation from influential religious and
community leaders such as the Sultan of Sokoto, Islamic NGOs and state
religious-affairs committees, the contractor simultaneously will
coordinate efforts with existing educational endeavors led by UNICEF and
other organizations.
Educational
systems nationwide have produced abysmal “education outcomes” for
Nigerian children, many of whom cannot recognize – even after spending
time in elementary school – printed words in their native Hausa.
Nigeria
has more elementary level “out-of-school-children,” or OOSC, than any
other nation in the world, with about 10 million nationwide and 3.7
million OOSC in the northern states alone, USAID says.
Conflict
and lack of equitable access to education have worsened the already
substandard quality of education in the largely Muslim states, according
to the agency.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/
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Obama: If I Were an ISIS Adviser
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Days ago Obama admitted to having no strategy for the problem, now we learn he was all but set to go to war.
In
a somewhat bizarre snippet from a New York Times account of Obama’s
prelude to war with ISIS, we find this strange bit of advice for ISIS
from the Commander-in-Chief himself. The Times fails to point out that
it makes no sense, while also betraying Obama’s lack of leadership.
But the president said
he had already been headed toward a military response before the men’s
deaths. He added that ISIS had made a major strategic error by killing
them because the anger it generated resulted in the American public’s
quickly backing military action.
If
he had been “an adviser to ISIS,” Mr. Obama added, he would not have
killed the hostages but released them and pinned notes on their chests
saying, “Stay out of here; this is none of your business.” Such a move,
he speculated, might have undercut support for military intervention.
Read the rest of this Patriot Update article here: http://patriotupdate.com/2014/
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