While the government may feel that the recent
events in and around Lal Masjid have been an
unqualified success, there will hopefully be some
significant introspection at the highest level
for the governmentís failure so far to reform the
madressah system in the country. In that sense,
whatever happens at Lal Masjid, this is only the
beginning because it would be fair to assume that
the kind of brainwashed students seen at Jamia
Hafsa and Lal Masjid may well be found at many
other seminaries in the country. Despite many
claims and pronouncements, often at the highest
level, the fact is that the system is as
unregulated as before and that the government
seems to have little or no say in what is taught
at most madressahs. According to the ministry of
education, there are over 10,000 seminaries in
the country, although the madressah organisations
themselves claim that the number is over 13,000.
As far as enrolment is concerned, the
organisations say that between 1.5-1.7 million
students are enrolled in madressahs, though the
religious affairs minister has said it is likely
to be around one million. Either way, the point
remains that the system is significant in size
and hence, like the mainstream system of
schooling, needs to be under government
regulation and monitoring.
There are many, including senior government
functionaries, who are of the view that
madressahs provide a much-needed service in a
society like Pakistanís. Since most seminaries
provide board and lodging as well, to many
families from impoverished backgrounds, they are
an affordable option of educating their children.
Besides, given that religious education is much
in demand in the country, such an opportunity
becomes all the more attractive. Unfortunately,
though, many madressahs do not teach the kind of
religious education to their students that would
make them better citizens who contribute to the
society around them. If anything, many seminaries
inculcate in their students a high level of
intolerance of those of other faiths — and even
sects. They do not teach worldly education that
could be useful for their students and generally
teach them ideas and thoughts that most sensible
people would agree were better left to the Dark
Ages. More dangerously, students are taught in
many instances not to respect the law of the
land — the idea being that they must obey a higher
law, and in pursuit of doing so, it is all right
to disobey the law of the land.
Furthermore, the students are taught that it is
okay, in fact their duty, to impose their view of
religion on the rest of society — by force if
need be — and that in doing so they will be
fulfilling their duty as a good Muslim. No wonder
then that most of the banned extremist/jihadi
groups have been staffed by men who studied in
madressahs and were often patronised by various
seminaries and with links to mosques. Some argue
that not all madressahs have ties to extremist or
jihadi outfits, but they all by and large promote
an ideology that justifies the actions of such
groups. There are many clerics who post-July 3
have come out vociferously against the Lal Masjid
brothers but one should be able to see the
hypocrisy in this, because ideologically most of
these clerics interpret religion in exactly the
same way as Maulana Abdul Aziz would. Calls for
imposing Sharia have been made many times before
and the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa brigade isnít
the only extremist group of its kind to have gone
about imposing its version of religion on others.
One will have to wait and see what movement takes
place now on this very pressing matter because
the government is in a position to use the Lal
Masjid affair to proceed with the reforming of
the whole system of madressah education. As it
does this, it will have to keep in mind that a
meaningful reform will not be possible unless the
mainstream system of education is overhauled.