[ppi] [ppiindia] The untamed madrasas

** ppi-india **
  The untamed madrasas  
         Samina Ahmed IHT  Monday, January 26, 2004 



 
Pakistan's unkept promise 

ISLAMABAD Addressing a joint session of the Pakistan Parliament this month, 
President Pervez Musharraf appealed to the Pakistani people to "wage a jihad 
against extremism" and said his government "would ensure that those individuals 
or groups involved in sectarianism and terrorism are completely eradicated from 
Pakistan." 
.
A few days earlier, Musharraf had promised Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee 
of India that he would tackle extremism and indicated that he would negotiate 
flexibly on Kashmir. These are encouraging promises, but a look at the record 
of the past two years gives reason to wonder whether Musharraf will keep them. 
.
In January 2002, Musharraf gave a televised speech promising to combat 
extremism. One aim was to bring all of Pakistan's madrasas, or Islamic schools, 
into the mainstream. Many now cultivate radical thinking and act as recruiting 
and indoctrination centers for jihadi terrorists. 
.
Declaring that no institutions in Pakistan would be above the law, Musharraf's 
government promised that it would register all madrasas to obtain a clear idea 
of which groups were running which schools, insist that all madrasas adopt a 
government curriculum by the end of 2002, and stop madrasas and mosques from 
being used as centers for the spread of politically and religiously 
inflammatory statements and publications. 
.
Two years later, no presidential ordinance to regulate madrasas has been 
promulgated, and the government openly assures the clergy that it will not 
interfere in madrasas' internal affairs. Most madrasas in Pakistan remain 
unregistered. 
.
The Pakistan Madrasa Education Board, established in August 2001 to oversee the 
schools, has so far only distributed questionnaires to obtain voluntary 
information. It lacks the authority to enforce registration. With such a 
limited mandate, it is more a cosmetic measure to address international concern 
about Pakistan's religious schools than a mechanism to regulate their 
functioning. 
.
No national curriculum has been developed for the madrasas. The board has set 
up three "model madrasas" teaching government-approved versions of the standard 
madrasa course along with subjects like mathematics, general science, computers 
and English. But together these three schools have only about 300 students, 
while as many as 1.5 million students attend unregulated madrasas. 
.
Most important, Musharraf has yet to curb the abuse of madrasas and mosques by 
religious extremists. During the 2002 national elections, the Muttahida 
Majlis-e-Amal, or MMA, an umbrella group of six religious parties, used these 
institutions for its anti-American and pro-Taliban campaign. Some mullahs, 
including leaders of political parties that Musharraf has banned, continue to 
use them to propagate an extremist Islamic agenda. 
.
Musharraf's failure to rein in the madrasas is just one part of his failure to 
scale back jihadi culture generally. The government has done very little to 
implement tougher controls on financing of madrasas and extremist groups 
despite obligations under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373. It 
even removed the issue of terrorism funding from draft regulations on money 
laundering. 
.
There is also no evidence of any focused and systematic campaign against 
homegrown extremists. The government has, it is true, apprehended foreigners 
with links to Al Qaeda and turned them over to U.S. authorities, but Al Qaeda 
was only officially banned in Pakistan in March 2003. In his time in power, 
Musharraf has concentrated hardest on legitimizing and consolidating his 
military-backed rule. The government has been hesitant to take any step against 
the religious right because it has needed the MMA's support in Parliament for 
measures supporting its rule. 
.
But the price Pakistan pays for this dependence on the religious extreme is 
rising extremist power and sectarian violence at home, including the 
assassination attempts against the president himself in December. Should 
Musharraf fail, once again, to do what must be done to eliminate hatred, 
sectarianism and terrorism in Pakistan, his policies will make his country and 
the world more dangerous. 
.
The writer is South Asia project director for the International Crisis Group, 
an organization that works to prevent and resolve conflicts.


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