Admittedly, they have some short-term problems that cast doubts on their survival as a nation; but, long-term, they have declared an embargo on free thought and free reading because you cannot separate out  ‘blasphemous’  material from cosmology, comparative religion, rational discussion of climatology, evolutionary biology, geology, sociology, human sexuality, democratic politics and a critique of theocracy or the facade of divine approval over a dictator; nor can you study or discuss the mistakes of history made by the theistic governments and organised religions of our forefathers.

Try teaching the uncomfortable uncertainties of quantum mechanics to a student who grew up conditioned to eternal certainties and never, ever questioning authority and the received wisdom of his teachers… Then see if he (and it will not be ‘she’ in a country with those problems) can ever work with – let alone make an original contribution to –  the fundamental science underlying electronics and chemistry.

Their best and brightest will depart for foreign universities – as if they weren’t already doing so – and the mediocrities remaining will become increasingly invested in keeping the country poor and ignorant – however much they protest or pretend to indignation when we call them ‘ignorant’ and ‘backward’.

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/01/168402680/pakistan-embraces-man-behind-one-pound-fish-viral-video