RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND VIOLENCE IN PAKISTAN

College For centuries, Islamic schools have preserved and transmitted knowledge, not only knowledge of Islam, but also knowledge of languages, literatures, reasoning, rhetoric, and natural sciences.Madaris were established at about the same time – in the 6th century of the Muslim calendar/11th century of the Christian calendar – as the Christian seminaries that grew into modern Western universities.Madaris have long been vital to Muslim societies as places to transmit religious learning. Pakistani madaris were once known throughout the Muslim world for their well-preserved Hanafi teachings. Today, they are better known, among ordinary Pakistanis, as places where ones'children may get an ethical education, in a disciplined environment,with low-cost accommodations and meals, and improved employment prospects.Outside Pakistan, madaris are known today as breeding groundsfor violence. The image, is as misleading as it is simple, but is not without cause. In September 1996, Taliban [madaris students], mainly Afghan refugees from Jamiat-i-Ulema madaris in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, marched on Kabul, toppled the governmentof Afghanistan, and imposed their version of shariah [Islamic law] onthe people living under their control. The Taliban used violence toenforce a shariah that banned women's formal education, paid work,and appearance in public without a male relative companion, and mandated a schedule of daily prayer and specific (bearded) appearancefor men. The rules of public, and private, life that the Taliban apparently learned in their madaris were strict and unforgiving.The Pakistani madaris has been transformed from a place topreserve Islamic knowledge from Western influence and the colonial politics of the day to a place to mobilize for political influence.Colonial practices fostered suspicions between ulema and governmentas recently as two generations ago. Government mistreatment o freligious activists after independence – such as arbitrary arrest and detention and prohibitions on political parties and religious associations – has sustained the mutual suspicions between governments and religious boarding schools, but only since the 1980s2have madaris advocated and been involved in organized violence.

Challenging myths about madrasah*

Religious schools (madaris)* in Pakistan have drawn considerable international attention. There are concerns that at least some of these institutions foster religious extremism and terrorism. But reliable data about madaris in Pakistan are scarce, especially concerning levels of enrolment and reasons for choosing madaris.

In 2004 CIET analysed madarsah enrolment data collected from 53,960 households in Pakistan. They did this at the same time as a more general survey about views, use and experience of public services. They also explored parents’ reasons for choosing to send children to madaris in 853 community focus groups.This allowed them to examine some of the beliefs and myths about madarsah enrolment in Pakistan on the basis of a large representative national sample. Findings from this study have been published in Cockcroft, A., et al., Challenging the myths about madaris in Pakistan: A national household survey of enrolment and reasons for choosing religious schools.
In 2004, 2.6% of all children (3.8% of school-going children) aged 5-9 years attended a madarsah, with a small increase between 2002 and 2004. CIET examined five commonly held beliefs about madaris in Pakistan:

Myth 1. Only the poorest families send their children to madaris.
The findings suggest that poverty does not necessarily push towards choosing a madarsah. Many
Madarsah enrolment among school-going children aged 5-9 yearsgovernment schools in Pakistan now offer incentives to students, including free oil or flour, free books, free uniforms, and stipends for girl students. Thus poor families may find as much support from the local government school as from the local madarsah.

Myth 2. Madaris are mostly for boys.
There was no difference by sex of the child. Girls were better represented in madaris than in other Pakistani schools.

Myth 3. Madaris are an urban phenomenon.
The findings show variability among Pakistan's four provinces. There was higher urban madarsah enrolment in Sindh and Balochistan. However, in Punjab there was little difference in madarsah enrolment between urban and rural sites. And in Northwest Frontier Province, with the lowest proportion of urban dwellers, there was more madarsah enrolment in rural sites.

* taken from CIETinternational

Madrassa...“center of learning”

Islam is the second largest religion in the world after Christianity and its origin dates back to the 7th century. With Prophet Muhammad (S.W) as the last messenger of Allah the religion was completed. The word Islam means “submission” referring to the total submission of one’s self to God. There are around 1.4 billion adherents spread around the globe known as Muslims.

The Quran is considered by Muslims to be the literal, undistorted word of God, and is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe that the verses of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad by God through the Angel Gabriel on numerous occasions between the years 610 and his death on July 6, 632.

"Read in the name of thy Lord Who created; He created man from a clot. Read and thy Lord is most Honorable, Who taught to write with the pen. Taught man what he knew not" (96:1-5).

An Islamic institute is a place where primarily Islam is taught and they are more popularly known as Madrassas. The word “Madrassa” means “center of learning” in Arabic. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) laid the foundation of first Islamic institute 1400 years ago, when he preached Islam at Dar-ul-Arqam. Since then the Islamic institutes have spread all over the world, teaching and preaching Quran and Islam. In subcontinent, renowned Muslim scholars established their Islamic institutes in different regions. In Pakistan, at independence there were 245, or even fewer, Madrassas in Pakistan. In April 2002, Dr. Mahmood Ahmed Ghazi, the Minister of Religious Affairs, put the figure at 10,000, with 1.7 million students.