By the 11th century, madrasas were well-established independent centers of learning with some of the features they retain today. They had permanent buildings, paid staff and resident scholars with living quarters and stipends. Students were given room and board, and received a free education.
Madrassas In Pakistan Pdf Free
The role of the madrassa in Pakistan and its contribution toIslamic militancy has been the subject of intense debate in U.S.academic and policy circles. Observers have been unable to agree onthe actual numbers of madrassas and madrassa students in Pakistan,and some studies reveal that the international media hasexaggerated these figures during the last few years. A World Bankstudy from 2005, for example, says Pakistani madrassas account forless than 1 percent of total academic enrollment in the country. InApril 2002, Dr. Mahmood Ahmed Ghazi, the former Pakistani Ministerof Religious Affairs, put the number of madrassas at about 10,000,with 1.7 million students.
While most madrassas in Pakistan are not churning out terroristfoot soldiers, there are a handful of religious seminaries thatpromote anti-West, pan-Islamic, and violent ideologies. Many of theolder madrassas have well-established reputations for producingserious Islamic thinkers, while others provide welfare services tothe poor through free religious education, lodging, and food. Amadrassa student learns how to read, memorize, and recite theQuran, and those with advanced theological training become Ulema(religious scholars). Each of the different schools of Islamicthought in Pakistan, including the Sunni Deobandis, Barelvis,Ahle-Hadith (Salafi), and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) as well as theShiia, runs its own seminaries.
From a counterterrorism perspective, U.S. policymakers shouldfocus their attention on the handful of madrassas in Pakistan thathave well-established links to terrorism. These madrassas arelikely well known to the Pakistani authorities and increasingly toU.S. intelligence and policy officials, and deserve special focusin our counterterrorism policies. The Darul Uloom Haqqania locatednear Peshawar in the Northwest Frontier Province, for example,served as training ground for Taliban leaders and a recruitingcenter for Pakistani militants fighting in Kashmir.
Other madrassas connected to violent militancy are located inthe southern port city of Karachi as well as in the province ofPunjab and have also contributed to sectarian tensions in thecountry. The banned Kashmiri militant organization Jaish-e-Muhammad(JEM, or "Army of the Prophet") and Sunni sectarian organizationSepah-e-Sahaba (SSP, or "Army of Companions of the Prophet") areheadquartered in southern Punjab. These organizations have closeinstitutional links with the Taliban and have been involved interrorism against Indian and Western targets, including the murderof Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002; the hijackingof an Indian Airlines flight that landed in Kandahar, Afghanistan,in December 1999; and the kidnapping and murder of five Westernhostages, including American citizen Donald Hutchings, in 1995.
These madrassas and associated militant groups have aninterdependent relationship in which the militant groups providearmed backing for the madrassas, and the madrassas in turn providemotivated recruits for the militant organizations. The recentlyjailed leader of a fertilizer bomb plot in England--British citizenof Pakistani-origin Omar Khyam--was reportedly inspired and trainedby Pakistanis involved in militancy in Kashmir. In addition, one ofthe suicide bombers who carried out the July 7, 2005, bombings ofthe London transport system reportedly spent time at a Pakistanimadrassa. Convincing the Pakistan government to completely closedown these dangerous militant groups and to sever their links withthe madrassas should be the centerpiece of our counterterrorismpolicies in Pakistan.
Madrassas in Pakistan are financed either by voluntary charity,foreign entities, or governments. The Saudi Arabian organization,Harmain Islamic Foundation, reportedly has provided substantialfinancial assistance to the Ahle-Hadith madrassas, which haveprovided fighters to the banned Kashmiri militant groupLashkar-e-Tayyaba (LET). The Ahle-Hadith madrassas emphasize theQuran and Hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammed) and oppose folkIslam and practices such as celebrating the anniversaries of saintsor the distribution of food on religious occasions. The largemadrassa complex supporting LET is located in the town of Muridkeoutside of Lahore and is well known for preaching hard-line viewson Islam. Since the Pakistan government officially banned LET in2002, the group has changed its name to Jamaat-ul-Dawa and played asignificant role in assisting victims following the October 8,2005, South Asia earthquake, demonstrating its ability to operatefreely within Pakistani society.
President Musharraf's government has had little success with itsattempts to assert greater government authority over the madrassas.In August of 2001, the Musharraf government promulgated the"Pakistan Madrassa Education Board Ordinance 2001" to establishthree model madrassa institutions in Karachi, Sukkur, and Islamabadthat would include English, math, computer science, economics,political science, law, and Pakistan studies in their curricula.Through the "Voluntary Registration and Regulation Ordinance 2002,"the government promised funding to madrassas that formallyregistered with the government. In a more controversial step, thePakistani government demanded that madrassas expel all foreignstudents by December 31, 2005. Islamist groups vehemently resistedthe government's efforts, however, and authorities backed down andmade public statements indicating that they would not use force orshut down noncompliant madrassas to enforce the directives.
The Minister for Religious Affairs, Ejaz ul-Haq, son of the lateformer President Zia ul-Haq, is responsible for implementingmadrassa reform. It was Zia ul-Haq's Islamization policies in the1980s that resulted in an expansion of the madrassa network tosupport the Afghanistan jihad against the Soviets and thatincorporated militant interpretations of Islam into the publicschool curriculum. Minister Ejaz ul-Haq has so far been reluctantto confront the prominent religious parties that have ties toforeign-funded madrassas and are resisting government reform.
Washington will need to encourage Pakistan to crack down onthose madrassas that continue to promote extremist violence andsectarian policies that lead to terrorism and the destabilizationof Pakistani society. The Pakistani authorities should clean housein any madrassas found to have links to international terroristincidents and make clear that those individuals who provideprotection or safe haven to al-Qaeda and like-minded terroristgroups will be held to account. The Pakistan government's refusalto detain or punish key terrorist leaders because of their links tothe Kashmir militancy signals a degree of tolerance of terroristactivity and provides a permissible environment for groups thatcollaborate with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. The Pakistanauthorities likely know which madrassas are supplying militants forterrorist training. We should use skillful diplomacy to persuadethe Pakistani government to reform or close down these schools.
The U.S. should refrain from getting involved in Pakistan'sbroader madrassa reform efforts and accept that many of thetraditional madrassas serve a useful purpose in educating Islamicintellectuals and providing shelter and food for impoverishedyouth. While a few Pakistani madrassas represent an internationalterrorist threat and deserve American scrutiny and condemnation,most madrassas should be left alone.
To conclude, U.S. efforts to encourage education reform anddevelopment in Pakistan should be consistent, sustained, andmulti-pronged. Ensuring transparency and efficiency in theeducation bureaucracy is equally important to encouraging localcommunity involvement and accountability in the day-to-dayfunctioning of individual schools, especially in poor, rural areas.The development of a strong and effective education system inPakistan is central to promoting moderation, tolerance, andeconomic development. Convincing the Pakistani government to takefirm action against the handful of madrassas supporting violentextremism also is necessary, not only for the future stability ofPakistan, but also to prevent future international terrorism.
According to Chinoy, the first stage in the indoctrination process involves the severing of young children from their families.[13] Since they receive free board and education, a sense of loyalty and obligation between the students and the madrasa develops. From a psychological perspective, the separation of a child from parental control subsequently leads them to look toward a father surrogate as their new authority, noted Jerrold Post, a Professor of Psychiatry, Political Psychology and International Affairs at The George Washington University.[14] In the case of the madrasa system, this surrogate often takes the form of the school cleric or teacher, whose sermons many young boys accept without question. 2ff7e9595c
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