Last week I wrote about Christine Fairs work on madrassah education and argued that since the madrassah system is largely opposed to the teaching of subjects such as science, mathematics and literature, we should all be concerned about young minds being closed to the possibilities and opportunities that this world has to offer.
In recent times, the issue of Madrassahs has received a lot of attention in the wake of growing concerns about militancy. This is not entirely without merit. Most madrassahs, as research suggests, emphasise their own maslak and therefore breed sectarianism. The madrassahs funded by jihadi organizations also demonise India, US and Israel and blame them for all our problems. A xenophobic worldview instilled by such groups in conjunction with a call (express or implicit) to take up arms against America threatens not just our future as a country but also the innocence of our children; the same innocence that could help us salvage some of our humanity.
We need to fight this hate mongering in a smart way and without blaming the US for all our problems. Steps can be taken at many levels. Madrassahs need to be registered and this registration needs to be made mandatory. Regulation of what is being taught and accountability regarding sources of funding should be non-negotiable. Banks now follow the KYC (know your customer) policy imposed by the State Bank in wake of concerns about money laundering. There is no reason that madrassahs should not follow the KYD (know your donor) policy. The Ministries of Education and Interior should come up with a mechanism to ensure that, where necessary, audits of the use of funding deemed can be conducted. Of course, these steps will require more money and this is where the will and the courage to reform ourselves rather than blaming others come in.
We spend woefully little on education from our national budget; in fact one of the lowest in the world. Being a country whose future and even the present appears hostage to seas of ignorance we need to take charge of our destiny. We need to drastically increase what we spend on education, especially on the public school system. Money is hard to come by in a country where people dont pay their taxes. Keeping that in view, any measures (including the VAT), that improve the documentation of the economy need to be welcomed. The government should consider attracting more donor money (aid), cutting unnecessary subsidies etc.
A special education tax on all private educational institutions earning beyond a certain point is also an option but is likely to a) offer incentives for such schools to hide what they earn and b) lead to protests since the potential spenders (our governments) suffer from a credibility deficit. But we at least need to get things moving. And donors abroad should be more than willing to pump in money if we can present an effective plan of overhauling our public education system. Till now, all the proposals seem to come from the donors. This time we need to take the initiative since our survival depends on it.
Fear and hatred is spread not just or even mostly by madrassahs. A study of 128 individuals involved in international terrorist attacks reveals that not even 1/3rd of them went to madrassahs. In fact, most were educated at public and private schools. Most were recruited not at madrassahs but by relatives, friends or at the local mosque. Our public education system, and the hateful and distorted history it teaches, is ideally suited for creating an army of those who feel victimised and resent others their freedom. Our textbooks mention the Partition of the Sub-continent as a time when the Hindus murdered and the Muslims were hapless.
Let us face it: suffering and the loss of loved ones has no religion, let alone colours of a flag. We need to purge our textbooks of hateful material and we need to train more teachers. We need to build more schools and, as I said, an effective plan initiated by the brightest minds on our side, might fly with the donors. But we need to try. That is the very least we can and must do. Separate classes can be offered in public schools for teaching kids Quran etc. Countries in Africa, particularly with some success, offered meals to kids at school and a certain stipend every month to the family for sending kids to school to increase enrollment. If our governments can set up schools and train teachers then such incentives can help in luring kids away from madrassahs.
Preaching of hatred is rife in our country. And those who do it often have significant financial resources to exploit innocent minds. Reforms need to take place at many levels including the level of Islamic scholarship and the criticism it adopts of violent practices. Those against us are from among our ranks and feed on our weaknesses. We need to fight their ideas with our idea. Money, surely, cannot determine this battle of ideas but courage and the will to succeed definitely can.
The writer is a Barrister of Lincolns Inn and practices in Lahore. He has a special interest in Anti-trust/Competition law. He can be reached at [email protected]
