- March 25th, 2010
- Posted in Outreach
- By masilva2
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Greg Mortenson’s story of perseverance in building schools for Pakistani children is admirable but the approach he used was incompete.
To honor the death of his sister with Epilepsy, Christa, he attempts to leave the necklace she wore at the K2 summit in Pakistan, the most difficult mountain to climb in the world. He says, “He would leave an offering to whatever deity inhabited the upper atmosphere” (9). Religion is brought up again and again within the book, for example when he begins to follow the Muslim ritual of praying five times a day, but I think Mortenson still underestimates the importance of religion to terrorism and overestimates the impact of education. I don’t agree with Mortenson’s main idea that the solution to terrorism is education and eradication of poverty. Many members of terrorist organizations are educated and middle to upper class. For example, the Christmas Day bomber, was once an English university student. There is something else that is at the root of terrorism that maybe we still don’t understand.
Mortenson does admirable work building schools for children who clearly desire it, they are so desperate to learn they are scratching their lessons in the dirt and snow. Mortenson is contributing beneficial creations to the villages he visits but he is not “solving” the problem of terrorism. While literacy will open the minds of these children to new sources of information many other steps need to be taken and all fields of knowledge shown respect. For example, Mortenson says he needs to bargain hard with local businesses and get his money’s worth for supplies (64). But this overlooks the fact that institutions such as Grameen Bank which foster and promote local businesses have made overwhelming contributions. Social businesses are considered one of the best ways to create stable environments and directly create new jobs.
I agree – I take a little bit of issue, too, with Mortenson’s blanket statements about how similar Christianity and Islam are, hinting at the idea that if everybody (Americans and Muslims alike) knew that, we would stop hating each other and terrorism would subside. You can even throw Judaism into the mix, as that’s another key controversial religion on the world scene. I think this gets into very dangerous ground because, although surface elements like goodwill and charity, and even prophets and stories like Adam and Eve are similar, many foundational roots of each religion are radically different and opposing. For example, Muslims, Jews, and Christians all have very different beliefs as to the identity of Jesus: whether it was a virgin birth or not, and His death, resurrection, and second-coming. Beliefs also vary regarding the nature of man and regarding the means of salvation: whether it is through correct belief (being a follower of a specific religion), deeds, faith, or any combination thereof. Layered on top is controversy over the right to inheritance. In much the same way there is a Sunni/Shi’ite split among Muslims over the correct transition of leadership, there is rivalry among Muslims, Jews, and Christians over which of Abraham’s sons’ descendents has the “birthright”: whether it was passed to Isaac who became the Father of Israelite nations, or his brother Ishmael, who became the Father of Arabian nations. In the end, each religion seems to point its finger at another as somehow being wrong or incomplete. Because of their fundamental differences, these three religions haven’t and never will just “get along” although they are so “similar” in all the other respects.