The truth behind madrassas

Madrassas need to be monitored since a very large number promote an extremist mindset.

According to a report in this newspaper, a madrassa based on the outskirts of Lahore has been placed under close intelligence scrutiny. The reasons given mention presence of a number of foreigners at the institute, including 30 from Afghanistan and three from Burma. Nearly 500 of the other pupils are said to be from outside Punjab, mainly from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There may be other reasons to suspect what is happening at the seminary. What is welcome is that the intelligence authorities appear to have take some notice of the unusual make-up of students at the premises.

This, of course, is just one madrassa. We do not know how many others may be running with the purpose of pursuing a particular jihadi or militant ideology. It is known that tens of thousands of seminaries operate across the country; their number continues to increase as poverty and the desperation of parents rise. It is true, as Maulana Fazlur Rehman stated recently during a rally in Karachi that not all these madrassas are responsible for spreading terrorism. But the point is that a very large number promotes an extremist mindset that feeds in to the thinking of groups such as the Taliban. It is for this reason that we need to keep a very close eye on seminaries operating in cities and towns across our country. In some ways, it is ironic that the JUI-F chief, who had so fervently defended madrassas, is the patron-in-chief of the institution which has now been placed under watch.

It is also ironic that this seminary, based in the Raiwind area, as we are told is affiliated with the Wafaqul Madaris. One would have thought that the central body regulating madrassas would adopt more caution in those it chooses to register. The situation leaves open the question of what is happening at the majority of madrassas which are unregulated and unrecorded in any way. Pakistan has come to be seen as a world centre of militant training. Somehow, for the sake of our country, we need to change this image.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2012.