ISLAMABD, Pakistan, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Pakistan's public schools and madrassas depict religious minorities in a way that fuels discrimination, and possibly violence, against them, a U.S. study said.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, which sponsored the study of schools in the predominantly Muslim country, said on its Web site the report involved examining social studies, Islamic studies, and Urdu textbooks and pedagogical methods in Pakistan's public school system and its madrassas -- the religious school system.
The study by the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy along with the Pakistani think-tank Sustainable Development Policy, also interviewed teachers and students about their views on religious minorities.
It found these schools "negatively portray the country's religious minorities and reinforce biases, which fuel acts of discrimination, and possibly violence, against these communities."
Hindus are depicted in especially negative terms, while references to Christians are often inaccurate and offensive, the study said.
"This study, the first-ever study of its kind, documents how Pakistan's public schools and privately run madrassas are not teaching tolerance but are exacerbating religious differences," commission chairman Leonard Leo said.
"Teaching discrimination increases the likelihood that violent religious extremism in Pakistan will continue to grow, weakening religious freedom, national and regional stability, and global security," Leo said.
The year-long study also found public school textbooks used by all children often had a strong Islamic orientation, and Pakistan's religious minorities were either mentioned in a derogatory way or omitted altogether.
Religious minority leaders in Pakistan welcomed the report, the Voice of America reported.
Sardar Hussain Babak, education minister of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told VOA the curriculum must be changed.
