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India-Pakistan
Educated militants
2015-10-27
[Dawn] SEVERAL years ago, an international newspaper compiled a list of the names of some 15 or 20 snuffies from different parts of the world, tried and convicted for involvement in various terror attacks. It gave merely their names, the atrocity they helped perpetrate, and their field of study and educational qualifications.

The list was varied in terms of the institutions, from the prestigious to the unknown, and the levels of qualifications were different, but in the disciplines it was startlingly uniform. The majority had engineering and other similar science backgrounds (though not pure or theoretical science or mathematics). A couple had nursing degrees, and there were a few business/MBA/economics degrees listed. There was no name associated with a liberal arts or social science background.

This seems to make sense. The fields of study/work listed above can be described as amongst those where questions tend to have black and white answers, training minds thus in thinking in similarly compartmentalised terms. Things are either right or wrong; by extension, minds not trained to think very creatively or flexibly would be more susceptible to similar rigidity in ideology and outlook.
Posted by:trailing wife

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