Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way by Jon Krakauer Page B
Authors: Jon Krakauer
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Gilgit-Baltistan. In an article titled “ Books vs. Bombs? Humanitarian Development and the Narrative of Terror in Northern Pakistan, ” published in the academic journal Third World Quarterly , Dr. Ali writes, “ The most troubling irony is that the focal region of Mortenson ’ s work — the Shia region of Baltistan with its Tibetan-Buddhist heritage — has nothing to do with the war on terror, yet is primarily viewed through this lens in [ Three Cups of Tea ]. ”
“ Baltistan is the most peaceful part of Pakistan, ” Ghulam Parvi confirms. Mortenson hired Parvi in 1996 to be CAI ’ s Pakistan program manager — the organization ’ s first overseas employee. According to Three Cups , Parvi is “ known and respected throughout Skardu as a devout Shiite scholar … . ‘ Without Ghulam Parvi, I never would have accomplished anything in Pakistan, ’ Mortenson says. ”
Last summer, Mortenson, the CAI staff, and the CAI board of directors received a surprising email from Parvi announcing that “ he is retired from CAI USA from 30th of June, 2010, due to Greg ’ s unhealthy attitude. ” Parvi ’ s split with CAI can be attributed to several factors, but at the top of the list is the pervasive dishonesty of Three Cups . “ In his book, ” Parvi explained in a letter to me,
Greg describes false stories to make the book interesting and sensitive, so that he would become very famous and fund raising make easy. Greg did so and he is really successful in his interior motives. But on the other hand, innocent people working with him in Pakistan, especially in Baltistan, had to face disgrace, loathsome from the society, religiously bashfulness and financial losses. Times and again Greg Mortenson was requested not to perform such acts, which bring bad name and defame to us, but he always very politely and smilingly neglected our requests.
Parvi was extremely disturbed that Mortenson devoted five pages of Three Cups (pages 241 - 245) to an alarmist disquisition on Wahhabism after he purportedly drove past a Wahhabi madrassa in the Balti village of Gulapor shortly before 9/11:
...Pakistan ’ s most virulent incubator of religious extremism — Wahhabi madrassas … .
In December 2000, the Saudi publication Ain-Al-Yaqueen reported that one of the four major Wahhabi proselytizing organizations, the Al Haramain Foundation, had built “ 1,100 mosques, schools, and Islamic centers, ” in Pakistan and other Muslim countries, and employed three thousand paid proselytizers in the previous year … .
“ In 2001, CAI operations were scattered all the way across northern Pakistan … , ” Mortenson says. “ But our resources were peanuts compared to the Wahhabi . Every time I visited to check one of our projects, it seemed ten Wahhabi madrassas had popped up nearby overnight. ”
From someone who presents himself as a steadfast opponent of anti-Muslim bigotry, such fear-mongering is hard to square. According to Nosheen Ali, madrassas are hardly a new phenomenon in Gilgit-Baltistan, nor are they cause for alarm. Such schools have been providing religious education to a variety of Muslim sects for a very long time. But this region, she emphasizes, “ is not a terrain teeming with fundamentalist madrassas and Taliban on the loose — the definitive image of the region in [ Three Cups of Tea ]. ” The subtext of Mortenson ’ s book, she rebukes, is “ rooted in a narrative of fear and danger ” that ’ s deliberately misleading.
On June 13, 2010, Parvi convened a meeting in Skardu to discuss Three Cups of Tea . Some thirty community leaders from throughout Baltistan participated, and most of them were outraged by the excerpts Parvi translated for them. Sheikh Muhammad Raza — chairman of the education committee at a refugee camp in Gultori village, where CAI has built a primary school for girls — angrily proposed charging Mortenson with the crime of fomenting sectarian unrest, and urged the District
“ Baltistan is the most peaceful part of Pakistan, ” Ghulam Parvi confirms. Mortenson hired Parvi in 1996 to be CAI ’ s Pakistan program manager — the organization ’ s first overseas employee. According to Three Cups , Parvi is “ known and respected throughout Skardu as a devout Shiite scholar … . ‘ Without Ghulam Parvi, I never would have accomplished anything in Pakistan, ’ Mortenson says. ”
Last summer, Mortenson, the CAI staff, and the CAI board of directors received a surprising email from Parvi announcing that “ he is retired from CAI USA from 30th of June, 2010, due to Greg ’ s unhealthy attitude. ” Parvi ’ s split with CAI can be attributed to several factors, but at the top of the list is the pervasive dishonesty of Three Cups . “ In his book, ” Parvi explained in a letter to me,
Greg describes false stories to make the book interesting and sensitive, so that he would become very famous and fund raising make easy. Greg did so and he is really successful in his interior motives. But on the other hand, innocent people working with him in Pakistan, especially in Baltistan, had to face disgrace, loathsome from the society, religiously bashfulness and financial losses. Times and again Greg Mortenson was requested not to perform such acts, which bring bad name and defame to us, but he always very politely and smilingly neglected our requests.
Parvi was extremely disturbed that Mortenson devoted five pages of Three Cups (pages 241 - 245) to an alarmist disquisition on Wahhabism after he purportedly drove past a Wahhabi madrassa in the Balti village of Gulapor shortly before 9/11:
...Pakistan ’ s most virulent incubator of religious extremism — Wahhabi madrassas … .
In December 2000, the Saudi publication Ain-Al-Yaqueen reported that one of the four major Wahhabi proselytizing organizations, the Al Haramain Foundation, had built “ 1,100 mosques, schools, and Islamic centers, ” in Pakistan and other Muslim countries, and employed three thousand paid proselytizers in the previous year … .
“ In 2001, CAI operations were scattered all the way across northern Pakistan … , ” Mortenson says. “ But our resources were peanuts compared to the Wahhabi . Every time I visited to check one of our projects, it seemed ten Wahhabi madrassas had popped up nearby overnight. ”
From someone who presents himself as a steadfast opponent of anti-Muslim bigotry, such fear-mongering is hard to square. According to Nosheen Ali, madrassas are hardly a new phenomenon in Gilgit-Baltistan, nor are they cause for alarm. Such schools have been providing religious education to a variety of Muslim sects for a very long time. But this region, she emphasizes, “ is not a terrain teeming with fundamentalist madrassas and Taliban on the loose — the definitive image of the region in [ Three Cups of Tea ]. ” The subtext of Mortenson ’ s book, she rebukes, is “ rooted in a narrative of fear and danger ” that ’ s deliberately misleading.
On June 13, 2010, Parvi convened a meeting in Skardu to discuss Three Cups of Tea . Some thirty community leaders from throughout Baltistan participated, and most of them were outraged by the excerpts Parvi translated for them. Sheikh Muhammad Raza — chairman of the education committee at a refugee camp in Gultori village, where CAI has built a primary school for girls — angrily proposed charging Mortenson with the crime of fomenting sectarian unrest, and urged the District
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