Deeply entrenched in Pakistan's society, madrasas are a common option available to educate millions of children, even though some are accused of promoting hateful ideologies and even having links to terror networks.
Sounds of recitation come from carpeted, dimly-lit classrooms occupied by young girls hunched together over low desks with their heads covered, memorizing the Quran. Some as young as five while others are well into their twenties.
This is a regular scene from Jamia Hafsa, a conservative girls-only madrasa (religious school) in Islamabad. Recitation of the holy book is not their only activity, as pupils often make headlines in the local news when they try to enforce Shariah law and threaten other women who they deem “liberal”.
Just last year, Jamia Hafsa girls protested against the Aurat March (Women’s March), calling it “obscene”. They even destroyed a mural made for the march, resulting in outcry from many Pakistani women.
In a more disturbing incident, the pupils of this conservative madrasa created unrest in the city by hoisting a number of white Taliban* flags on their madrasa building, seemingly showing their allegiance to the armed group which returned to power in Afghanistan last year.
Jamia Hafsa is part of the notorious Red Mosque complex - also a madrasa for men - which made headlines in 2007 when it was stormed by the government forces.
The siege turned violent and resulted in the death of 150 people, including madrasa students and army personnel. Government forces were victorious and the madrasa's leader, cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz, was arrested while he tried to run away disguised as a woman in a burka (full body veil).
© AFP 2022 / AAMIR QURESHI
The Red Mosque incident happened because the government could no longer tolerate the radicalization of students that was happening in the complex. Today, Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa are fully functioning again and their leaders deny that any militant activity goes on within its complex. However, strange incidents do seem to arise around it. Moreover, the complex is not just one building situated in the heart of Pakistan's capital - it is part of a much larger network.
Some madrasas within this network are located all over Pakistan, and they have previously been accused of promoting radical ideologies and having links with terrorist networks. This was brought to light by Pakistani physicist and activist Pervez Hoodbhoy, who published "Defeating Religious Terrorism- What Will it Take?"
According to activists like Hoodbhoy, in the 2010's, most of the suicide attacks that occurred in Pakistan involved someone from the Red Mosque madrasa. After government forces, under then-president, General Pervez Musharaf, conducted the siege, the radical madrasa pupils started seeking revenge, attacking military and civilian targets.
Between 2007-2014, there were 3,700 terrorist attacks in Pakistan, some 1,200 schools were destroyed and over 50,000 people were killed. Furthermore, over one million were displaced internally as a result of the ongoing conflict involving insurgent groups and the military.
Nowadays, people, local media and the government avoid speaking up against madrasas because it is a complex and sensitive issue. Activists like Hoodbhoy have mentioned that the government seems to be afraid to get involved, partially explaining why the number of madrasas has grown exponentially in just a few decades.
However, some say that Pakistan's government, under pressure from the international community, has been making efforts to regulate madrassas and bring them under the government's control.
The Explosive Growth of Madrasas
A military spokesman, Major-General Asif Ghafoor, told reporters that more than 30,000 madrassas will soon be brought into the "mainstream" fold and overseen by the Ministry of Education.
"An Islamic education will continue to be provided but there will be no hate speech," Ghafoor said.
From an estimated 150 at Pakistan's independence in 1947, there are now between 30,000 and 50,000 madrasas within the country with an estimated four million students. These madrasas are privately funded and do not fall under the government's jurisdiction.
This growth began in the 1980s when Pakistani society found itself radicalized during the Afghan - USSR war.
General Zia ul Haq, who was the president of Pakistan at the time, used foreign funding given by the United States and Saudi Arabia to open madrasas where students would be taught the strictest forms of Islam and trained to fight a "holy war" against Soviet "infidels". During Zia's long tenure of 11 years, thousands of madrasas sprang up across Pakistan.
The youth was one of the prime victims of this radicalization, whereas intolerance and extremism became the side effects of this phenomenon in Pakistani society. The Madrasa Youth Today.
Although the war is over and many young people study in regular, non violent madrasas, there is still a wide gap between a Pakistani youth who studied at a madrasa and a youth who went to a public or private school and college.
Government and private schools teach math, English, science, Islamiyat and social sciences, hence giving pupils a wholesome education and preparing them for the real world.
On the other hand, madrasas focus on making the students memorize the whole of the Quran (they memorize it by heart, they don't always know the translations until much later). The pupils also study the Hadith (life of the Holy Prophet), and various other Islamic books, essentially preparing pupils for the afterlife, focusing on their spiritual knowledge but leaving them with no education in practical or worldly terms.
Even their knowledge of Arabic doesn’t come in handy because Pakistanis don’t speak in Arabic. The national language is Urdu and the business language is English. There have been some reports in the local media that show how upon graduating from their respective madrasas, youth cannot get real jobs or make a proper living, except for teaching in other madrasas or becoming Mullahs in mosques.
However, even these positions are no longer available, as the supply of these pupils greatly outweighs the demand, so thousands of madrasa pupils coming of age each year are left with no practical means of surviving in today’s capitalist society.
What life choices are they left with? What contribution can they make to society? Oftentimes these pupils are brainwashed by clerics like Maulana Abdul Aziz who has on many occasions said: "We have created an environment within our madrasas to bring a revolution worldwide. These children are very young and the way you mold them now is the way they will stay all their lives. Progressive thought is dead. Islamic world will dominate not only in Pakistan but in the whole world."
A couple of years ago, Pakistan's then-Prime Minister Imran Khan said that he wanted the madrasas to produce better-qualified students. "Seminary students should also become engineers and doctors,” he said in a public address. He called on madrasas to introduce a core curriculum including subjects like math, English and science.
Why Do Families Send Their Kids to Madrasas?
Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, a legislator who served as spokesman for the former provincial government, said the Punjab province recently shuttered some two dozen madrassas as they were seen as militant. He added that many other madrassas were teaching students that Muslims who followed different sects were infidels worthy of being killed.
If some of these madrasas are giving rise to Islamist violence in the country, then why don't people just stop sending their children there?
There are many reasons, and the first is that these students come not only from Pakistan but also from other countries, especially Afghanistan. The boarding, eating, and tuition fee in these madrasas is free of charge, hence, it is aimed at mostly poor families who cannot afford to raise their sons and daughters and provide them with education. Moreover, madrasas also take in orphans.
In a typical rural family in Pakistan, there are many children. Out of this bunch of kids, if 2-3 are sent to a madrasa that means the family has less mouths to feed. Sending these children to a government school would mean buying them uniforms, books, stationery, paying a tuition fee and commuting to and from school each day. That is a financial burden many families cannot afford.
One more important reason for parents sending their kids to a madrasa is the belief that a pupil who graduates from a religious school becomes so pious that on the day of judgment he/she will be able to take ten people to heaven with them. Hence, for many families it is a matter of prestige to have their children enrolled in a madrasa.
Furthermore, families don’t really know what goes on inside the madrasas, as it is a close-knit community and no one from outside is allowed to visit.
According to some reports, once a pupil is taken in by the madrasa he/she cannot leave the premises and can only visit their family once a year. There was an instance where a 13 year old child from Karachi’s madrasa was sent to Afghanistan without the knowledge of his parents, and the father had to petition in the courts for the child to be returned. The court issued notices to the head of the institution, the police and concerned ministries, the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies reported.
In another case, a girl named Zarina from Bunni Behk village was sent to a madrasa not far from her home. "They didn't allow us to leave the madrasa premise, they would beat us if we tried to leave. They made us wear burqas and said to forget our parents. I cried a lot and then ran away. I managed to climb over the wall and ran, but I still get afraid that they will come after me."
Although there are many similar cases of disturbing stories coming out of some of the madrasas, research over the years into madrasas' links with militancy has so far presented a complex picture.
According to some who have studied madrasas, now the majority do not advocate militancy. Instead, they follow a deeply conservative interpretation of Islam similar to that taught in Saudi Arabia. However, with the rising cases of terror attacks, public lynching, killing of innocent Pakistanis of other faiths and acute intolerance of western ideologies, it remains unclear where all this hate and religious indoctrination comes from? Perhaps these unchecked madrasas and their dogmatic curriculum are a possible reason for the violent cycle of extremism that Pakistan seems to be constantly battling?
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