From: Ezajur Rahman <ezajur.rahman@q8.com>
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 4:45:06 AM
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Govt tightens noose round qoumi madrassahs
Govt tightens noose round qoumi madrassahs
Courtesy New Age 15/4/09
DCs asked to collect info
Siddiqur Rahman Khan
The education ministry on Monday issued a directive to all deputy commissioners asking them to collect information about qoumi madrassahs as part of a government move to establish control over them.
The ministry in its letter said that the government wanted to exert some control over all the qoumi, nurani, forkania, hafizia and ahle hadith madrassahs and mosque-based religious institutions.
'At present such religious institutions are running without the control of the Bangladesh Madrassah Education Board,' said the letter.
'You [DCs] are asked to gather information about the source of funds, number of madrassahs and their students and teachers, date of their establishment and syllabus and send it [data] to the ministry by April 23,' said the letter signed by a deputy-secretary (madrassah section) of the ministry.
On April 1, law minister Shafique Ahmed told reporters that the government wanted to bring all madrassahs in the country under a policy guideline by registering them.
Shafique termed the qoumi madrassahs as the breeding grounds for militancy. He said that the present activities of the militants using religion were against religion and Islam as well. 'Islam never and cannot allow such militancy.'
The law minister's announcement came after a huge cache of arms and ammunition was seized from a Bhola madrassah, funded by Green Crescent , a UK-based charity, on Mach 24.
Following Shafique's announcement a number of religious leaders and associations of quomi madrassah teachers demanded his resignation.
Different intelligence agencies launched investigations into the activities of the qoumi madrassahs after the countrywide series of blasts on August 17, 2005, based on the information that these institutions provided guerrilla training to the students with a view to establishing Islamic rule in Bangladesh .
The investigation substantiated the information and the intelligence agencies marked 323 qoumi madrassahs, where militant training was taking place. The intelligence agencies also suggested that the government should monitor the activities of the madrassahs and trace the source of their funding.
Since there is no government control over qoumi madrassahs, anybody can set up such madrassahs anywhere in the country.
The first-ever survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics in December 2008 said that there were 5,230 quomi madrassahs with about 14 lakh students.
The majority of the qoumi madrassahs are located in Sylhet, Barisal Chittagong and greater Mymensingh.
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