Controversies, Challenges and Prospects
Dr. Syed Manzar Abbas Zaidi
4 March 2013
Introduction
The importance of education in a society cannot be disowned. A well-established education system is an important constituent of a civilized nation and society. Its importance is well evident in developed countries as it plays a major role in personal and social development. As an alternate track to Western style of education, religious seminaries – madaaris1 and religious education have played a vital role in the history of Islam to fulfil the education needs of Islamic society. Despite the madaaris constituting an indigenous system of education in Pakistan, the madrassa sector of the country has been at the center of debates on extremism and radicalization of society since Pakistan joined the US-led war on terror after 9/11. The madaaris are perceived as a crucial medium for promoting extreme religious, sectarian, social and political views which lead towards militancy. Meanwhile it has been highlighted time and again that there is a need to reform the madaaris to transform the radical ideologies with real Islamic moderate values, and provide an applied-education mode where madaaris students become useful members of the society.
Notwithstanding their notoriety in the West, madaaris in Pakistan are considered as NonGovernmental Organisations (NGOs) that provide free education, boarding, and lodging to their students, and help to ‘educate’ the poverty struck in society. The institutions follow a structured curriculum of Islamic subjects designed to prepare its graduates for positions as Islamic clergy. Therefore, religious education is reckoned as a part of the education system in the country. There are three parallel streams in education – public schools, private schools,
and Islamic religious schools, and ‘madrassas’ or ‘madaaris’ (both plurals are lexically used) which exist in Pakistan. Being Muslims, many in Pakistan want Islamic education, and not an unsubstantial number of parents seek both religious and secular components in education.
Hence public and private schools both embrace Islamic studies as a subject beside other subjects in the curriculum, while madaaris offer purely religious education for the students who have ambitions to specialize in religious education. In these circumstances, even if madaaris are criticized by a segment of society, many amongst the masses continue to support them.
The madrassa institution came into the limelight in the aftermath of 9/11. Thousands of newspaper articles, research papers and essays published across the world have discussed the role of the institution in promoting violence and militancy. International Crisis Group (ICG) reports, “Pakistan: Madrasas, Extremism and the Military” July 2002 and “The State of Sectarianism in Pakistan” April 2005, explain the role of madrassas in Afghan war during Zia regime and their role in promoting sectarian violence in the country. Amir Rana’s book “Gateway to Terrorism” 2003, maps out a list of the madaaris that have links with jihadi and sectarian organization in Pakistan. “Pakistani Madrassas – A Balanced View” by Dr Saleem H Ali (published in 2005) states that there were 363 madrassas in tehsil Ahmadpur in South
Punjab and a majority of them were involved in sectarian violence. Whereas some other re-5 ports focused on the role the madrassa plays in threatening international security, the 9/11 Commission report released in 2004 said some of Pakistan’s religious schools or madrassas served as “incubators for violent extremism” in the world. The thesis “Pakistan, Madrassas,and Militancy” by Daniel L. Billquist and Jason M. Colbert, December 2006, argues that the best path for combating religious militancy in madrassas is by helping to create better alternatives to madrassa education, including state run and private schools, and not by targeting madrassas directly. However, many revisionists’ researches have demonstrated that in fact madaaris are not to be condemned as dens for suicide bombers, as they do not necessary hail from the madrassas but mainstream institutions. Peter Bergen & Swati Pandey, “The Madrassa Scapegoat”, 2006, examined 79 terrorists responsible for five of the worst anti-Western terrorist attacks, and found that only in rare cases were madrassa graduates involved. Some experts have also challenged assumptions of these schools as major militant hubs. In “The Madrassa Challenge”, 2008, Christine C. Fair explores the significance of the madrassa and its role in Pakistan’s educational system. Numerous Pakistani writers have also discussed the madrassa education and system in Pakistan. Muhammad Qasim Zaman’s book “Religious Education and the Rhetoric of Reform: The Madrassa in British India and Pakistan,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, April 1999, and the book “Deeni Madaris-Tabdeeli Kay Rujhanat” By Khalid Rahman, a comprehensive piece of work in Urdu on the trends of changes taking place in Religious Education Institutions (REIs) of Pakistan, are highly relevant researches for all those who want to understand the system, educational process and the influence of these institutions in Pakistan’s society. The review of existing literature on the subject usually portrays a rather slanted picture inasmuch the arguments in favor of madrassa or against it put forward one-sided narratives. On the other hand the balanced views towards the madrassa institution have ignored some aspects, and failed to draw an appropriate conclusion. Therefore, the question arises that if the madrassas are not involved in acts of militancy then why is the issue of madrassa reforms so important in Pakistan, and if the madrassas are involved in militancy and terrorism then why is the Pakistani government reluctant to take action against them? The gaps of communication and lack of knowledge are obstacles to understanding this dilemma of comprehension. This report not only analyses the key issues of the madrassa system in the present time, but also explores ways to bridge gaps between religious and mainstream education in the country, besides recommendations to settle some of the controversies with regard to madrassa system……