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| July 15, 2006 | Saturday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 18, 1427 |
Madressah reforms in Pakistan’s interest: IIU dialogue
ISLAMABAD, July 14: Parti-cipants of a round table on Friday called for reforms and modernization of Madressah education as it was in Pakistan’s own interest. They said although it was coincided with the United States’ security concerns, there was no contradiction to work together for a shared objective.
The round-table on ‘Islamic Education: Continuity and Growth’ was organized by the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) here in its new campus.
IIU Rector Dr Manzoor Ahmad, president Dr Zafar Ishaq Ansari, Dr Tamara Sonn, Kenan Professor of Religion and Humanities, College of William and Mary, US, Dr Mahmood Ghazi, former president, IIUI, Dr Mumtaz Ahmad, Hampton University, USA, Dr Farid Esack, visiting Professor, University of Homburg, Dr. Khalid Masod, Director General, Council for Islamic Ideology and a number of educationists and intellectuals vigorously participated in the discussion.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Manzoor Ahmad, Rector IIUI, stated that the world direly needed a dialogical reasoning for correcting wrong perceptions about each other’s living and thinking. There must be a variety of baseless allegations and misleading perceptions but only dialogue and tolerant listening to others’ views can pave the way for a peaceful co-existence.
Elaborating the Western debate on Madressah education, Dr. Tamara Sonn, with references to a number of western media, said that the enthusiasm of Madressah graduates in militant activities had caught the attention of US policy makers towards Madarassa as they considered this system a breeding ground of anti-west militant activities.
Dr. Mahmood Ahmad Ghazi, former president IIUI, while criticizing the approach that Madressahh reforms programme was a US initiative, said soon after the establishment of Darul Uloom Dewband century ago, need for reforms in Islamic education system was felt by known Muslim scholars of the Subcontinent.
He said that Muslim intellectuals, for centuries, made a variety of academic experiences in the shape of Dewband, Nadwatul Ulama and Aligarh, etc., as they were rightly thinking that appropriate education system could be the best answer to most of the social, economic and political issues of the Muslims.
Commenting on Madressah reform initiated by the US, Dr. Ghazi expressed his regrets and said that the United States was mostly following shadows and not hitting the right target. The breeding ground of terrorism might be found in US policies towards Muslims and not in Madressahs’ education.
On this occasion, Dr. Mumtaz Ahmad said that the impression of Madressah education given by media is mostly incorrect and misleading. Facts and figures given by some very authentic think- tanks differs each other.
Number of Madressahs given by some national and international organizations is between 6000 (Six thousand) to 90,000 (ninety thousand) and students between 500,000 and 1.5 million that contradict each other. Referring to exaggeration in figures on Madressahs, he mentioned that a report of the Christian Science Monitor stated that there are 50 madrassahs in Gujar Khan.
Having some knowledge of Gujar Khan, he contacted CSM for verification and only 37 names came out of 50 that included many venues where the Holy Quran is taught to young children and that is nothing to do with madrassah.
Dr. Mumtaz surprised the audience by stating that the growth of madrassah education in Ayub Khan’s regime was faster than the era of Ziaul Haq that was known for Islamization. He said that foreign aid for madrassah was a fact but a large part of the funding is indigenous.
Dr. Khalid Masood, DG CII, commented on this occasion that the challenge of modernity is not faced by madrassahs only but by all religions and traditions.
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