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Myth and reality of a Pakistani madrasa

The air is humid as the blades of the ceiling fans rotate, giving some respite to the occupants of a mosque tucked away in the back lanes of a muddy village in central Pakistan.

Heads shaven and bowed, several boys in the mosque repeat by rote the verses of the Arabic scriptures before them. It is doubtful whether they understand what they read.

The teacher brings the reading to an end, ordering the boys to go into the village and beg for food for their supper, or better still, money or even used clothes.

There are thousands of madrasas, or religious schools, in Pakistan where education in Islamic theology and religious law is imparted to the students.

Their exact number is not known although, according to President Pervez Musharraf, they total 10,000 -- an understated figure that fails to take into account the number of mosques offering the same religious education, say observers.

A government drive for their registration has not evoked the desired response, and these schools continue to function with little outside interference.

"We do not accept the government syllabus," says Allah Ditta, a teacher at the Jamia Qurania Arabia Madrasa in the village of Macchikay in Pakistan's central Punjab province. "Their syllabus does not make a man religious. The aim of our religion is to reach god."

Coming from poverty-stricken homes, Ditta's pupils have acquired little contemporary knowledge. Their future expertise lies in another, more dangerous area.

Madrasas in Pakistan, say critics, are hotbeds of religious fundamentalism and a training ground for militants. Inevitably, their graduates are blinded by intolerance, prejudice and backward thinking.

In this regard, experts cite the examples of seminaries like the Darul Uloom Haqqania near Peshawar in the North West Frontier Province, and patronized by Maulana Samiul Haq, who heads a faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam.

This seminary has allegedly served as a training ground for militants now in Kashmir and Central Asia, and those belonging to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia. It is similar to religious schools sponsored by the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkat-e-Jihad-e-Islami and the Al-Badr Mujahideen.

But Samiul Haq has said, "We only impart religious education here. The students later take up guns on their own."

His views are echoed by the Pakistan president, who in an interview with an Indian journalist, said, "There is no military training going on in any madrasa. There may be very few such seminaries where military training is going on. Keeping arms in madrasas is banned."

Liberals and NGOs advocating greater economic freedom, emancipation of women and adherence to Western secular norms have come in for considerable flak at the hands of the clergy who run these madrasas.

Says Mutiur Rahman Nizami, a cleric, "NGOs threaten family cohesion because they give employment to women and tempt them to disobey their husbands."

A number of madrasas do teach subjects besides religion, including computers, among them the Darul Uloom Taqviatul Islam, also known as the Madrassah-e-Ghaznavia.

"Religious graduates need regular degrees to be able to earn their living in a respectful fashion and serve their religion with their self-esteem intact," says Syed Junaid Ghaznavi, who heads the board of governors that runs the seminary.

He explains how graduates from the madrasa later assume posts as mosque leaders or schoolteachers. "We also impart education that prepares pupils for matriculation, bachelors and masters degrees."

"Also, we have evolved a method of teaching that strictly shuns sectarianism and inter-sect hatred. Breeding hatred only damages religion. Jehad is not only holy war, it is a struggle against social evils."

Ghaznavi denies the use of physical punishment that madrasas in Pakistan are notorious for. "This makes teaching difficult," says Ghaznavi. "The students would run away. We have evolved a persuasive method of teaching."

But not every one agrees that madrasa students get the right training to join the mainstream. Critics also point to the "concentration camp like" conditions prevailing in most seminaries where teachers physically and verbally abuse scores of children.

"They are dungeons run apparently by these men of religion," says social scientist Amjad Iqbal, adding: "Such inhumanity can only breed criminals."

Indo-Asian News Service

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