KARACHI CHRONICLE: Demonising madressahs

The expose on the inhuman treatment of students of a madressah on Super Highway, in the remit of Gulshan-i-Maymar police station, where 50 children and 14 adults were found shackled was shocking.
Equally shocking was the out of hand condemnation of the entire madressah system of education unleashed by the easily-led middle class and monied class of Karachiite, by sensation-mongering journalists and by half-baked and wholly ignorant politicians in the Sindh Provincial Assembly last week.
Anti-madressah propaganda is so strong that the very term "madressah" creates an impression that the place is the breeding ground of terrorists, suicide bombers and fanatics who think it is their holy duty to murder people of other sects and faiths. Hence people believe we can get rid of terrorism by simple abolishing the madressah system of education.
In a country where there are not enough school, criticising and wanting to abolish any type of education system is not a solution. You cannot bunch the good and bad madressahs together. There are hundreds of dubious institutions, and perhaps the Jamia Zakariya Kondal that was raided last week is one of them, where religious education is just the front for anti-social activities including terrorism. Parents who admit their children in such schools are the only ones who are fooled by the pseudo holiness. Usually they are very poor and believe their children will get some schooling that will improve their lives and provide better livelihood.
The idea that schooling will improve the quality of life is not new, and till recently madressah have served this function throughout the subcontinent, especially in remote villages and small towns, Madressahs provided basic primary type of education to people without discriminating against cast or creed. Thus the late Dr Rajendra Prasad, president of India, got his basis education at a madressah. Even after partition madressahs continued to provide literacy, reading, writing and some maths in Hindu-dominated India.
Madressahs were always attached to a mosque but that did not mean only religious education was imparted. It was just like the Catholic missionary schools run by nuns and priests. Missionary schools in the subcontinent however tend to be located in cities, while the madressahs served villages and towns. In places like Bengal, South India and the Punjab, where schooling has always been considered important, children from Hindu, Sikh as well as Muslim families studied at madressahs.
In Swat, where there is a large community of Sikhs, the children still study at madressah, if secular schools are out of reach. In his book "Jarnaili Sarak" (Grand Trunk Road) Raza Ali Abidi notes a Sikh boy learning his lessons in a madressah in a village near Panipat.
In English the term "seminary" is now universally employed because madressah have become exclusive for Muslims. With exceptions like Swat, it is unfortunate that madressahs in Pakistan do not welcome non-Muslims students. This, in terms of the long history of madressahs, is a recent development. A seminar is a college or school for training priests and preachers. That seems to have become the function of madressahs now.
While we do need trained people to teach Islam, the question is: do we need so many thousands of teachers and preachers? There are five religious madaris bodies in the country, each having at least 14,000 registered madressahs. Students from these madressahs are trained in proper recitation of the Holy Quran and taught Shariah and Hadith. In short, students become professional teachers of religion on completion of their studies. To be sure, secular subjects are included, but the emphasis is on religion.
It is the fact that has made religious education a profession, and is largely the reason why so many unauthorised madressahs have mushroomed. It is like the small-time English medium private schools where education is substandard and the real purpose is to profit from the school business. Madressahs were never meant to be a means of livelihood.
The phenomenal increase in the number of madressah began with Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization and funding from Saudi Arabia and UAE. Zia was politically motivated but I doubt Saudi Arabia and UAE had an ulterior motive in funding madressahs in Pakistan. How was an ordinary working class parent to know which madressah was legitimate and which was not?
The authorities are to be blamed for existence of notorious madressahs. According to Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Sindh which compiled data on madressah in January this year, there are 736 unregistered madressah in Karachi. It is now the end of the year. Why has the government slept over the information? There ought to have been an action plan to rid the city of these unauthorised madressahs which are undoubtedly breeding grounds for terrorism. Merely sealing one madressah is not enough. The remaining 735 should also be shut down.