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Pakistan's struggle to rein in religious seminaries!

What you said was true perhaps few years ago.

Pakistani society like any other group of 200+ million people is not made of stone or wood.

They too have realized that Mullahs are not helping and thus willing to uproot this evil.

The idea is for the thinking heads aka intellectuals to take the lead now and steer the masses in the direction of good global citizenship, and self awareness.

I say this because many intellectuals (perhaps including you and I) could be stuck in the past but the society has moved on.

peace

You may be correct, but I will beleive that only if there is tangible evidence to support what you say. Thus far it is all noble words but not much change, in the best Pakistani traditions.
 
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan pledged to crack down on religious seminaries suspected of fostering extremism following the Peshawar school attack in December that left more than 130 children dead, but the move faces stiff resistance from conservatives.

Amid a wave of outrage after the attack at the school in the Peshawar, the government announced a “National Action Plan” to fight back against the militants.

A six-year moratorium on the death penalty was lifted and the constitution was amended to allow military courts to try those accused of carrying out attacks “in the name of religion or a sect”.

The plan also included proposals to keep a closer watch on the country’s 13,000 Islamic seminaries, or madrassas, 97 per cent of which are privately run.

With little oversight of what was being taught to the 1.8 children enrolled in them, fears grew after Peshawar that some were breeding grounds for intolerance — or even extremism.

Every evening the leafy streets of one of Islamabad’s most exclusive quarters throng with young men in white shalwar kameez and prayer caps.

They are students of the Jamia Faridia madrassa, tucked among the upmarket homes of diplomats and wealthy Pakistanis.

It is run by Maulana Abdul Aziz, the cleric of the hardline Red Mosque, which in 2007 was the scene of a week-long military siege against radicals which left more than 100 people dead and led to the rise of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Aziz is well known for his controversial views, including praising the Islamic State group and saying the Pakistani military’s fight against the TTP was “un-Islamic”. Last year the Red Mosque’s madrassa for girls renamed its library in honour of slain al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Habib Ullah, a Jamia Faridia student, says bin Laden is his hero and has strong views on Shia Muslims, who form a minority of about 20 per cent of the Pakistani population, which is mostly Sunni Muslim.

“They are not Muslims and they should be converted to Islam,” the 12-year-old told AFP.

In his home village in the northern district of Kohistan, the cleric used to say that killing one Shia would bring you 70 steps closer to heaven.

That is a startling view for any child to hold, but particularly in a country where sectarian violence — mostly targeting Shias — is on the rise.

But the government’s efforts to rein in madrassas have prompted anger from many clerics, who accuse the authorities of maligning religious leaders in a bid to build an “anti-Islamic narrative”.

“The term religion and sect have been used in the… constitutional amendment, which makes it biased,” said Abdul Qudus, spokesperson for Wafaq-ul-Madaris al-Arabia, the country’s largest grouping of madrassas.

“We are quite sure that the government wants to target religious institutions, but we won’t let it happen,” he said.

Information Minister Pervez Rashid felt the force of the clerics’ influence last month after he called madrassas “universities of illiteracy and ignorance”.

Banners appeared overnight all over Islamabad condemning him and he was forced to apologise on television.

There is also the question of possible resistance from Pakistan’s wealthy friends in the Gulf. In January, a Senate committee heard that seminaries were receiving funding from Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.

The last time Pakistan tried to regulate madrassas, under military ruler Pervez Musharraf, Gulf countries — particularly Saudi Arabia — leaned on Islamabad to persuade it not to push too hard on the curriculum, according to a senior official.

After Peshawar, however, Pakistani media and government ministers began publicly questioning whether financial support from Saudi Arabia for madrassas was fuelling violent extremism, a rare moment of discord between the longstanding allies.

The Saudi embassy issued a statement saying all its donations to seminaries had government clearance, but much of the funding is thought to come through informal channels.

“Madrassas have special representatives who travel across the Arab world and African countries… and those who have access to Europe, they collect the money themselves from Muslim communities there,” Amir Rana, the director of think tank the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, told AFP.

“This is a grey area which is difficult to monitor.”

A senior government official who asked not be named said an estimated 70 million rupees was illegally transferred from two Gulf countries in the space of two months this year after visits by religious leaders.

Pakistan is a deeply religious society and, despite misgivings about madrassas, clergy are generally well respected.

Overcoming resistance from them will take political will and determination, which Rana said he doubts the government can muster.

“They (the government) have political interests and they are well aware of the street power of the clergy and their hold on society,” he said.

Pakistan underwent a “programme of Islamisation” under military ruler Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s and successive governments have sought to make capital from religion.

The government has sought help from religious leaders to persuade parents to immunise children against polio and used mosques and seminaries to build a narrative of patriotism.

Moreover, madrassas remain popular with the poor for financial and social reasons, as well as religion.

For many less well-off families, madrassas offer a cheap way to deal with their numerous children. Unlike many schools, madrassas do not charge fees, and on top of teaching pupils, they also house, clothe and feed them.

In addition, a madrassa education can offer social prestige that in Pakistan’s deeply religious society, secular schooling cannot match.
A boy from a poor family who trains long enough to become a mullah brings respect for his whole family — and the chance to open his own mosque.
Pakistan's struggle to rein in religious seminaries - The Express Tribune

The mullahs of Pakistan have driven me away from Islam. I don't associate with them because most of them are not versed in any text outside the three books they were taught during their madaris years. Their lack of intellectual fibre is frustrating to say the least. The only way we can liberate ourselves from them is by strengthening our system of formal education. We need to rid ourselves of the dichotomy between the two apparently disparate forms of education. A school should be a madrassa and a madrassa should be a school.

An ideal system of education is one where students are taught world history, physics, chemistry, business, economics etc..while at the same time being imparted religious education of the type available in madrassas. Islamic Studies or Islamiat simply does not cut it, because it does not cater to certain children whose families want them to go on and become an Aalim or a Hafiz (that whole 7-9 year Aalim course from kindergarten fiasco).

The quality of education between public and private schools needs to be brought at parity with one another.The need of the hour is to form a uniform education policy (just like the National Action Plan) whereforth the curriculum for both the private and public sectors needs to be harmonized. Public schools need to raise their standards and the attendance of teachers needs to be checked.

Until and unless we take the initiative to reform our system of education by catering to all classes of students (those who wish to pursue a career as a mufti/aalim/hafiz and those who wish to commit themselves to a life of science, or become businessmen) we will not be able to rid ourselves of the madrassa culture.
 
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What is Saudi Arabia's grand design for Pakistan? Why is Pakistan allowing SA to spread its fundamentalist Wahabbi brand of Islam in Pakistan? Is there a secret understanding between the two? Or is Pakistan too scared of upsetting the applecart for fear of losing Saudi support?

Cheap non Arab wahabi warriors to die for Saudis, what more could they want? Trafficking of young Pakistani girls for paedophile Arabs, cheap labour, nuclear technology, you name it we offer a discount for ''brotherly'' nations.

The Pakistani elite allied with Mullahs receive a percentage of Saudi aid for being good pets.
 
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The best long term solution would be to incorporate religious studies, including a study of the Quran and its translation, in public education so that people don't need to go to madrassas for them. That also prevents any sectarianism or extremism, since public schools will have students and teachers of all sects, unlike madaris.

As for Lal Masjid, Abdul Aziz needs to be hanged. Replace the entire staff of the Masjid with sane people and convert it into a public school. Might help reverse some of the damage it caused in the long term.
Apparently attempts to control the madrassas are likely to fail as long as Pakistan officially remains an "Islamic" republic - the Islamists get a special veto, since democracy and government are subject to the Koran.
Nothing in the Constitution gives Madrassas any veto, and neither does the Quran say anything about having madrassas.

Abandoning Islam will actually result in the mullahs having a field day - they'll have more ammunition and the state will lose whatever political control it has over the political mullahs. (Maulana Fazlur Rehman, for example, would start spewing even more venom than he already does. As of now he's pro-establishment and all the venom is directed at political opposition. The same is true for most of the other political mullahs)

The system isn't good the way it is now, but suddenly deciding to secularize it would make things worse. What's needed is a slow, systematic clean up to evict all extremist mullahs from the political system, and replacing them with moderate scholars who discourage sectarianism, promote unity and can very effectively counter extremism. Javed Ghamidi is an example that comes to mind.

So what about the non-Muslim Pakistanis? What about those who are not even religious and would rather want their children to be educated more secularly? :D :D :D
Non-Muslims would have the option to opt out from religious studies.
 
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The best long term solution would be to incorporate religious studies, including a study of the Quran and its translation, in public education so that people don't need to go to madrassas for them. That also prevents any sectarianism or extremism, since public schools will have students and teachers of all sects, unlike madaris.

Isn't Islamiyat already part of the curriculum? What you are suggesting is to convert all schools into madrassas, when the solution should be to convert the madrassas into schools.

Non-Muslims would have the option to opt out from religious studies.

They already have such an option.
 
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Isn't Islamiyat already part of the curriculum? What you are suggesting is to convert all schools into madrassas, when the solution should be to convert the madrassas into schools.
What part of ''including a study of the Quran and its translation'' do you not understand? No, that is not what I'm suggesting. If proper religious education is incorporated into the curriculum, madrassas can then be turned into public schools. And that doesn't mean they won't teach anything else. It just means a few religious lessons every week.

The way it is now, Islamiyat is inadequate and not standardized at all. Some schools call Qaris to teach the Quran while others study basic Islam in English. Standardization is very important, and religion needs to be taught properly in schools or religious people will send their kids to madaris after school.
They already have such an option.
Then what's the problem?
 
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So what about the non-Muslim Pakistanis? What about those who are not even religious and would rather want their children to be educated more secularly? :D :D :D
They can send them to USA as for NON MUSLIMS for them courses will be developed
 
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The best long term solution would be to incorporate religious studies, including a study of the Quran and its translation, in public education so that people don't need to go to madrassas for them. That also prevents any sectarianism or extremism, since public schools will have students and teachers of all sects, unlike madaris.

As for Lal Masjid, Abdul Aziz needs to be hanged. Replace the entire staff of the Masjid with sane people and convert it into a public school. Might help reverse some of the damage it caused in the long term.

Nothing in the Constitution gives Madrassas any veto, and neither does the Quran say anything about having madrassas.

Abandoning Islam will actually result in the mullahs having a field day - they'll have more ammunition and the state will lose whatever political control it has over the political mullahs. (Maulana Fazlur Rehman, for example, would start spewing even more venom than he already does. As of now he's pro-establishment and all the venom is directed at political opposition. The same is true for most of the other political mullahs)

The system isn't good the way it is now, but suddenly deciding to secularize it would make things worse. What's needed is a slow, systematic clean up to evict all extremist mullahs from the political system, and replacing them with moderate scholars who discourage sectarianism, promote unity and can very effectively counter extremism. Javed Ghamidi is an example that comes to mind.


Non-Muslims would have the option to opt out from religious studies.
Quran with translation and Islamiyat with massive details on rights of ALLAH and humans and aqeedah and other matters and also Arabic taught as language and in 11th and 12th a tafseer and summarized books of Hadees
 
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Isn't Islamiyat already part of the curriculum? What you are suggesting is to convert all schools into madrassas, when the solution should be to convert the madrassas into schools.



They already have such an option.
That Islamiyat needs to be expanded massively. Islam is much bigger than 150 page book of Islamiyat.
 
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That Islamiyat needs to be expanded massively. Islam is much bigger than 150 page book of Islamiyat.

An academic year is about 1,000 hours of education, and there are several subjects to teach. You cannot massively expand one subject without massively compressing the others. Simple math.
 
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That Islamiyat needs to be expanded massively. Islam is much bigger than 150 page book of Islamiyat.
Sorry. No need to impose government's version of "ISLAM" down our pupils throats :D :D :D

An academic year is about 1,000 hours of education, and there are several subjects to teach. You cannot massively expand one subject without massively compressing the others. Simple math.
Islamic Madrassas solved this time problem hundreds of years ago by banning education in secular, non-Islamic subjects all together, effectively ending Islamic Golden Age by their own actions! :D :D :D
 
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An academic year is about 1,000 hours of education, and there are several subjects to teach. You cannot massively expand one subject without massively compressing the others. Simple math.
Students studying in madrassas after school adds a lot of hours to that. Simply increase the school day by half an hour to allow for a Quran class. Or make it optional and after school, which would be a good option for students once madrassas are phased out or converted into schools.
Sorry. No need to impose government's version of "ISLAM" down our pupils throats :D :D :D
A very myopic view. Would you rather have Mullahs impose their version of Islam? Pupils need to be able to combat extremism by knowing religion. Ignorance of religion makes them more gullible to extremism.
 
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A very myopic view. Would you rather have Mullahs impose their version of Islam?
We could establish something similar like we have here in Western countries, the institution of State Church (State Mosque) under direct command of the King (President). Although it could easily become corrupt as the rest of our traditional society already is, but let's hope :)
 
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Students studying in madrassas after school adds a lot of hours to that. Simply increase the school day by half an hour to allow for a Quran class. Or make it optional and after school, which would be a good option for students once madrassas are phased out or converted into schools.

But there is already a 40-60 minute class on Islamiyat that includes portions of the Quran taught daily. What good does this extra half hour do?
 
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