I wasn't sure if I should put this up in the religion or current events forum, but if Highdrake does not want this here, he can move it to the current events forum.
Anyway, I just wanted to put in a good word for this moving little book called
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
They tell the story about an American nurse and mountain climber named Greg Mortenson who got lost coming back down from a failed attempt to climb K2. He ends up in a Pakistani village so remote that it is not even on the maps.
He is exhausted and not feeling well, and the villagers, though very ppor, take him in and nurse him back to health.
He promises them that he will come back and build a school for their children.
He has trouble fundraising in America and getting through the system of graft in Packistan, but he finally gets that school up and running.
And then, in the following ten years, he builds more than fifty more village schools in the mountainous regions of Pakistan and Afganistan - including many school specifically for girls. He even builds schools in Taliban areas.
It is just an amazing and heart warming story. And perhaps it shows a better way to fight against terrorism and fundamentalism than warfare - one village and child at a time.