The Myth of Madrassah Reform in Pakistan
KASHMIR HERALD: Five years after General Pervez Musharraf promised sweeping reforms to ensure that Pakistani religious schools are not used any further to propagate extremist Islam; the country’s traditional madrassa system continues to operate freely as the key breeding ground for radical Islamist ideology as well as the recruitment centre for terrorist networks.

The madrassa reform campaign launched by General Musharraf in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in January 2002 has largely failed and hardly a few cosmetic changes could be introduced in the existing madrassa system. The federal government’s plan for madrassa reform is a classic example of the one-step forward two-steps backwards approach. Musharraf’s rhetoric to modernise the religious schools has met with little success mainly due to a lack of political will to enforce any of the much-trumpeted policy decisions that were supposed to be taken by his administration to reform the madrassas by bringing them into the educational mainstream. Subsequently, signs of Talibanisation are quite evident in all parts of Pakistan, especially in the heart of the federal capital where hardline religious leaders and hundreds of men and women activists from local madrassas continue to challenge the writ of the government by trying to force their brand of Islamic justice.

The March 30 raid by a group of burqa-clad madrassa students on a brothel in Islamabad and subsequent hostage taking of the alleged brothel owner was the second provocation by the Jamia Hafsa girl students in a short span of three months. Since January 2007, other than this incident, the violent students have occupied a children’s library adjacent to their madrassa after the Capital Development Authority began demolition of two mosques that were constructed on state land without permission. Several hundred girls of the Jamia Hafsa armed with bamboo sticks and weapons seized the only library in the federal capital, chiefly meant for children and refused to vacate it until the government reconstructed the mosques. At one stage the government did start reconstruction but the girls upped the ante and made extraneous demands including enforcement of Shariah laws in the country. Madrassa Reforms - The Great Myth (Cont’d) by Amir Mir

Mark Alexander