Why are the Norwegians giving financial aid to religious schools in Pakistan???

Hard to believe what the Norwegians are doing...

Norway's Foreign Ministry has been sending financial aid to controversial religious schools in Pakistan. Researchers and local Pakistani experts want it to stop, as does a conservative politician.

As much as NOK 6 million (more than USD 1 million) has gone to 118 so-called "Koran schools" in northwest Pakistan. Some local experts, however, fear Norway risks supporting fundamentalist groups because it makes no demands on the schools' curriculum.

Karin Ask, a researcher at the Christian Michelsen Institute, told newspaper Dagsavisen that Norway could wind up even supporting jihadists, those encouraging holy war.

The research institution International Crisis Group (ICG) also worries about any "uncritical" support of the schools, claiming that they mount a "considerable danger" to international security.

The ICG noted that Koran schools in Karachi, for example, have trained jihad warriors and sent them to both Afghanistan and Kashmir. Ask told Dagsavisen that there's no reason to believe schools in northwestern Pakistan wouldn't do the same, not least because that area is known as a recruiting ground for jihadists.

Norway's government minister in charge of foreign aid, Erik Solheim, claims the goal of the aid project was to "promote dialogue."