By Umer Farooq, IOL Correspondent
ISLAMABAD, August 5, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Pakistani religious institutions, better known as Madrasahs, are currently under the spotlight, not just locally, but internationally, especially after the links made by Britain between them and the July 7 terrorist bombings in the heart of the British capital.
It is true attempts by the regime of General-turned president Pervez Musharraf to "reform" Madrasahs go way back to four years at least, but it is very clear these attempts grew sharp teeth following the London bombings.
Apparently, the plan of the Musharraf regime is working on two levels. The first is to evict foreign students or teachers in the Madrasahs and to stop any more coming in, something that has already been done.
The second is to insist on more state engagement with the Madrasahs, whether in setting up the curricula or monitoring the details of these seminaries.
Foreign Students
The government has announced the decision to expel all the 1400 foreign students studying in the seminaries.
Officials said that the government has also decided not to issue any visas to foreigners intending to come to Pakistan to join the religious educational institutions.
Besides, two existing laws the government intends to promulgate a new ordinance for banning the entry of foreign students into Pakistani seminaries. Some officials indicated that the ban would also apply to students with dual nationality.
Three of the four suicide bombers of London blasts were Britons of Pakistani origin. Pakistan security officials have confirmed that they had visited Pakistan before the incident bombing took place in London.
“We are still in the process of investigating whom they met during their stay in Pakistan, their telephone contacts and all other details,” said a senior security official.
Law enforcement agencies have carried out some arrests in connection with the London bombings, however, they have also clarified that none of them is in any way found to be linked to the grisly crimes.
But students possessing dual nationality (foreign nationals of Pakistani origins) were – understandably -- extremely critical of Musharraf government's decision to ban foreign students from studying in Pakistani seminaries.
“There is no military training going on here and extremism being taught, why the government wants to deprive us of religious education,” an American national of Pakistani origin studying in Islamabad seminar, told IOL.
Some of these students even vowed to go to the government if evicted from the Madrasahs.
Background
According to government estimates there are around 10,000 religious educational institutions in the country imparting religious education to students based on curricula designed by 17th century religious scholars of British India.
Most of the Madrasahs located in Pakistani provinces close to Afghan border had played a crucial role in supporting Taliban movement in its formative phase and also after the US attach on Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 bombing in American cities.
Some of the major Madrasahs declared holidays for their students to join Taliban in their fight against US attack.
The number of madrasahs increased during General Zia ul Haq’s rule (1977-1988) when US was sending money, arms and ammunition into Afghanistan for the fight against Soviet Occupation.
The money was being sent through Pakistan and this money was said to have been used to support the Madrasahs.
Number & Structure
In April 2002, the Pakistani Ministry of Religious Affairs, put the figure at 10,000, with 1.7 million students.
They belong to the major sects of Islam, the Sunnis and the Shiites, but they are mostly Sunni schools, given the fact that Pakistan is a predominantly Sunni country. Among the Sunni sect, there are three sub-sects: Deobandis, Barelvis and the Ahl-i-Hadith (salafi).
Besides these, the revivalist Jamat-e-Islami also has its own madrasahs.
Independent experts, however, believe government figures are not completely accurate, citing a number of non-registered Madrasahs functioning in the remote areas of Pakistan as well as in the heartland of the country.
The government initiated a process of volunteer registration of Madrasahs some two years back, but the process never succeeded as its faced resistance from the Madrasahs to interfere in the internal affairs of their institutions.
Peaceful Attempts
In the course of the last couple of years, the Musharraf government promulgated two ordinances aimed at checking extremism and militancy in Madrasahs.
The first was aimed at introducing secular subjects to the curricula. This ordinance, called the "Pakistan Madrasahs Education (Establishment and Affiliation of Model Dini Madaris) Board Ordinance 2001" was promulgated on August 18, 2001.
Three model institutions were then established: one each at Karachi, Sukkur and Islamabad.
Their curricula ‘includes subjects of English, Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics, Political Science, Law and Pakistan Studies, in the different stages of the Madrasahs.
But these institutions were not welcomed by the majority of ulema (scholars) despite the fact that a tiny monitory supported the government attempts to modernize religious seminaries.
Another law was later introduced to control the enrollment of foreigner students in the madrasahs and keeping a close eye on them.
This law -- Voluntary Registration and Regulation Ordinance 2002 -- has, however, been rejected by most of the madrasahs which reject any state interference in their affairs.
Curricula
Despite their obvious focus on religious subjects, the seminaries curricula also include secular subjects, with less emphasis though.
In Pakistan, all types of Madrasahs teach the same curricula based on Dars-i- Nizamiyya (Regular Education), designed by religious scholars of 17th century British India.
However, Madrasahs belonging to each sect have modified the Dars-i-Nizamiyya, according to the requirements of its own sect.
Dars-i-Nizamiyya curricula that include textbooks on grammar, logic and philosophy.
In the post independence period, the ulema have also introduced subjects such as history and more recently on computers.
The emphasis of teaching, however, remains the imparting of religious education, including Shari'ah, Fiqh, Hadith (Prophetic Sayings and Tradition) and religious polemics.
“Mulla Nizam-ud-din, 18th century scholar of British India, considered to be the author of Dars-i-Nizamiyya, expanded the existing corpus of works typically studied to include a number of books on each of the various subjects of Maqulat (human reasoning): Arabic grammar, logic, philosophy, mathematics, rhetoric, Fiqh and theology.
"Qur'an and Hadith are only marginally studied through two commentaries, the latter through one abridgement” said Babara Metcalf, the author of famous book "Islamic revival in British India".
Ulema who came later reversed the emphasis from Maqulat to Manqulat (transcribed knowledge). But the basic framework of the curricula has been retained to this day.
Historically, Dars-i-Nizamiyya was designed at a time when Muslim political power was on the decline in the Indian sub-continent and the British were gradually assuming the political and military control of the area once under the sway of Muslim power.
Changes
Experts view Dars-i-Nizamiyya as a product of the time when Muslim learned men were making endeavors to preserve the Islamic intellectual heritage in India in the face of the collapse of the Mugal Empire.
In the post-Independence period, the Madrasahs Education system retained Dars-i-Nizamiyya curricula. But in some cases it was greatly amended to suit either the requirements of time or the requirements of the particular sect to which the madrasahs belong.
For instance, the Madrasahs run by Jamat-e-Islami included books by its own leaders on subjects such as history and the current political and economic situation of the country.
But most experts believe Madrasahs Education System doesn’t automatically lead to the spread of violence and militancy in the society. They argue the introduction, by some seminaries, of military training and the breeding of a particular violent political ideology led to spreading militancy in Pakistan religious institutions.
Blame
Professor Tariq Rehman, who teaches history at Quaid-e-Azam University, said that madrasahs became militant when they were used by the Pakistani state to fight in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation.
Despite the centuries-old curricula being taught in these seminaries, their students currently have militant views about most of the foreign policy issues confronting Pakistan and the region.
Some of these students even expressed willingness to join militant struggles going on in the surrounding regions.
“I don’t know (if) it will affect the country, (but) I am willing to join the Jihad going on in Kashmir and Afghanistan against the infidels,” a Pakistani student of a Madrasah located in Islamabad, told IOL, asking not to be named.
In the course of the last four years, the Musharraf regime banned some ten militant organizations blamed for infiltration into Indian-held portion of Kashmir, Afghanistan and sectarian violence inside the country.
Most members of these organizations have also joined Madrasahs which located in different parts of the country.
Funding
Most of the Madrasahs are run on charity from small traders, middle class members, in addition to some rich businessmen. Reportedly, some of the Madrasahs are also being funded by foreign governments. But there is no official records to support such a claim.
Three years back, the government also started funding the seminaries, in an attempt to help them modernize their textbooks and introduce secular subjects in the curricula.
According to officials figure of 2001-02, a total of Rs 1,654,000 was distributed among the madrasahs which accepted the help.
In the past three years the Ministry of Religious affairs have also provided funds to some of seminaries for introducing computer classes in their curricula.
As most of the students in these seminaries come from the lower strata of the society, Madrasahs don’t charge any tuition fees. But every student has to pay a nominal admission. The students are provided with free boarding and lodging.
Auditing
After the registration process got underway, the Madrasahs started having their accounts audited.
“We regularly subject our accounts to the auditing by government authorized audit companies” said Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, chief of Tanzeem-ul-Madrasahs in Pakistan.
“Madrasahs in Pakistan are serving the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and they are run on donations from public and it includes donations from every walks of life,” another official of Tanzeem-ul-Madrasahs in Pakistan, which is one of the several overseeing bodies of Madrasahs.
But senior officials of the Interior Ministry argue that the auditing process is a recent practice, or at least it has been applied rigorously only recently.
Economic Reasons
According to a recent survey conducted by a Lahore-based educational institution, more than half of the students join the seminaries because of economic reasons. As the seminaries offer education free of charge, or – more simply – they are the only place these poor students can gain literacy.
Most of the teachers in these seminaries share the socio-economic background with their students. Coming from poor background, they are usually paid handsome salaries when serving in leading seminaries, which attract students from all over the world.
“However, there is no fixed salary system for teachers in all the seminaries and salaries vary from seminary to another,” according t a senior Pakistani journalist, with well-known associations with the religious forces in the country.
“As they are also from poor backgrounds, they express their sense of being cheated by society in the idiom of religion. This gives them the self-righteousness to fight against the oppressive and unjust system in the name of Islam,” said Tariq Rehman, in one of his presentations in a seminar.
The support for these religious seminaries, usually come from leaders of religious-political parties and they are the ones who vehemently defend the institutions and the education they are imparting.
Two weeks earlier, the alliance of six religious parties staged country wide protests to defend Madrasahs education from government interference.
The government, on the other hand, has opened a dialogue process with the overseeing bodies of these institutions to take them on the path of reforms.
Counter-Pressure
Within this context, one of the largest seminaries of Pakistan "Jamia Binoria", in Karachi, has invited foreign diplomats based in Islamabad to visit the seminary and see for themselves how it functions.
The invitation is apparently aimed at building pressure on the government to reverse the decision regarding the ban on foreign students studying in Pakistani madrasahs.
“we will do our best to help our foreign students complete their studies in Pakistan, our efforts may take us to the court” said Mufti Naeemi, instructor and chief of the Jamia Bonaria told journalists in Karachi few days back.
The federal and provincial governments have convened meetings with the leaders of Madrasahs to explain to them the necessity of expelling foreign students from their seminaries.
But Qazi Hussein Ahmed, leader of the Jamat-e-Islami which runs around 1500 seminaries of its own and hosts a number of foreign students from Europe and Asian Muslim countries, said that the ban on foreign students will go against national interests.
All in all, Pakistani media is currently engaged in a furious debate on the Madrasahs education and the ban on foreign students. Madrasahs administrators and leaders, government officials and independent experts are vigorously participating in the debate.