India's Assam passes bill to shut down madrasas

India's Assam has passed a new Bill in which state-run madrasas will be converted into regular schools.

The Bill proposes to abolish two existing acts, the Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation) Act, 1995 and the Assam Madrasa Education (Provincialisation of Services of Employees and Re-Organisation of Madrasa Educational Institutions) Act, 2018.

Assam’s Education Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma told the local assembly that under the new law by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), more than 700 of the madrasas in Assam will be closed down by April, The Guardian reported. He said these madrasas will be converted into regular schools, adding, that the move was aimed at taking the Muslim community 'forward'.

“We need more doctors, police officers, bureaucrats, and teachers, from the minority Muslim community rather than imams for mosques,” Sarma said. Mohammad Fakaruddin Ahmad, who teaches at a madrassa disagreed with Sarma and told Arab News that their madrasas, like other schools, teach science and maths and other subjects and produce doctors and engineers too.

"Madrasas follow the education curriculum of the state government and we teach secular education to our students, besides having a course in Arabic and Islamic studies,” Ahmad added.

The opposition Congress party has said that the BJP's move was an attack on Muslims and they are attempting to create religious tensions. "The idea is to wipe out Muslims,” Wajed Ali Choudhury, a lawmaker from the opposition Congress party said.