August 6, 2005

THE western media for the past few years has been blaming the medressahs in Pakistan for terrorism. They have however not provided any evidence whatsoever to support this accusation. Recently, an article “Myth of the Madressah” published in the New York Times (June 14) categorically proved with facts and figures that there was no evidence to support the view that the medressahs produced terrorists. Ms Karen Armstrong in an article “Blame politics not Islam” published in The Guardian blames western policies for terrorism and not Islam or the medressahs.

There has been a campaign for the past year and a half to introduce science, mathematics, etc. in the curriculum of the medressahs. This is an interference under Articles 20 and 22 of the Constitution which state:-

Article: 20; “Freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions: Subject to law, public order and morality; (a) every citizen shall have the right to profess, practise and propagate his religion; and (b) every religious denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.

Article: 22; Safeguards as to educational institutions in respect of religion, etc: (1) No person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or take part in any religious ceremony, or attend religious worship, if such instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own. (2) In respect of any religious institution, there shall be no discrimination against in the granting of exemption or concession in relation to taxation.

(3) Subject to law:- (a) no religious community or denomination shall be prevented from providing religious instructions for pupils of that community or denomination in any educational institution maintained wholly by that community or denomination; and (b) no citizen shall be denied admission to any educational institution receiving aid from public revenues on the ground only of race, religion, caste or place of birth.

These provisions were present in more or less the same words in the 1956 and the 1962 constitutions. Incidentally there has hardly been any change in the curricula of the madressahs in the last 50 years and from 1956 till recently no one has accused them of teaching terrorism, sectarian hatred or extremism.

One needs to examine these recent accusations. We know that the bombings carried out since 9/11 involved people who were highly skilled in languages, were familiar with customs, had knowledge of the transportation systems and the ability to be inconspicuous; they had the knowledge and the practical skills to make powerful explosive from chemicals freely available and the expertise to assemble detonation mechanism. In the London bombings the explosive used was acetone peroxide, which is a highly sensitive explosive and one has to be highly skilled to manufacture and handle it.

No madressah in Pakistan has the staff who can teach these techniques and skills. These skills are normally taught in intelligence schools to operatives who already have the necessary educational background of science, electronics and language skills.

There has to be a definition of what constitutes sectarian hatred; it just cannot be the whim of a police officer making a raid. Incidentally, the MMA includes all schools of thought, i.e., Deobandi, Barelvi, Shia (Asna Ashri) and Ahle Hadis. Since they all agree on the basic principles and are on the same platform, one wonders who is preaching hatred against whom?

Regarding the accusation of extremism, no one has defined as to what constitutes extremism. Is it strict observance of the tenets of Islam? Ms Asma Jahangir (HRCP chairperson) defines an extremist to be one who wants to enforce his belief by force on others. This is a reasonable definition. The question is, is this doctrine taught in any madressah?

Instead of making accusations and using undefined terms, it will be equitable, just and fair if hard evidence is provided, the accused are indicted for their crime and produced in courts for trial. So far this does not appear to have been done. One also is perplexed at the silence of human rights groups who are always so active when one of their own is affected.

Although the present action against the medressahs may be within the ambit of the law, it impinges upon the freedom provided in the Constitution and one could argue that it appears to be against the spirit of constitutional provisions.

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)