Book Review Name of the Book: The Madrassah Challenge—Militancy and Religious Education in Author: C. Christine Fair Publisher: Year: 2008 Pages: 143 Reviewed by: Yoginder Sikand Long ignored by the international media, policy makers and academics, traditional madrasas or Islamic schools shot into the limelight following the Islamic revolution in This slim book is an outcome of empirical research undertaken by the author in Pakistan, and is based on her personal interactions with numerous Pakistani ulema, heads of madrasas, government officials, as well as American policy-makers. Fair's basic concern is to seek to understand the reality or otherwise of widespread accusations about Fair's central contention, which she backs with an impressive array of statistics, is that unqualified and sweeping claims about Pakistani madrasas in general as training centres for militancy in the name of jihad need to be viewed with circumspection. Based on her interviews with family members of 140 slain Pakistani militants, she argues that only a small minority of Pakistani militants active in the violence in Although Fair contends that, overall, the proportion of Pakistani madrasa students and graduates involved in international militancy is relatively low, she notes that madrasas might help create an atmosphere conducive to calls for what they often describe as jihad. In particular, this has to do with how madrasa students are socialized to view the world around them, including what they are taught about non-Muslims and religions other than Islam. Fair rightly concludes that madrasa teachers and students tend to be considerably less tolerant of other religions and their adherents, and significantly more supportive of violence as a means to solve territorial disputes, as, for instance, with regard to the conflict in Kashmir between India and Pakistan. It would have added weight to her contention if she had surveyed the texts taught in Pakistani madrasas that deal with issues related to the notion of jihad and the portrayal of non-Muslims in these texts. She could also have conducted in-depth interviews with her numerous Pakistani respondents on these crucial issues that are central to the debate about madrasas and militancy. That would have greatly added to the merit of her argument. Another interesting finding that Fair presents to her readers is that, contrary to what is generally thought, full-time madrasas account for probably less than 5 per cent of all students in Pakistan, they being greatly outnumbered by students enrolled in public and private schools. This indicates that the influence of the madrasas is considerably less than what is often imagined. Not all madrasa students come from impoverished families, as is generally supposed. Fair estimates that more than 10 per cent of madrasa students are sons of fairly rich parents. Then, again, contrary to popular perception, not all Pakistani madrasas teach only religious subjects. Many of them have included basic secular subjects in their curriculum. Others allow for admission only to students who have completed at least a few years in a general school. Madrasas might not simply produce what Fair calls 'intolerant' students. It may also be the case that 'intolerant' families might choose to send their children to madrasas because they believe that madrasa teachers espouse similar worldviews. But even here generalizations are hazardous, Fair writes, as most parents who have at least one child studying in a madrasa choose to send at least one of their other children to a general, private of public, school. She adds that it is not just Pakistani madrasa students who are generally characterized by considerable hostility to religious minorities and advocate what they consider as jihad with Fair adduces several reasons for the involvement, albeit limited, of Pakistani madrasas in promoting international militancy: Saudi financing of conservative Sunni madrasas in Pakistan to counter Shia groups or even Sunni groups inspired by Iran's anti-imperialist and anti-monarchical revolution; American and Saudi backing for militant madrasas in Pakistan during the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan; and the increasing salience of ulema-led political parties in Pakistan that can rely on a steady supply of madrasa students as their foot-soldiers. She refers to the continued use by the Pakistani state of radical Islamist groups, including those associated with madrasas, particularly of the Deobandi, Ahl-e Hadith and Jamaat-e Islami sort, in the ongoing conflicts in Kashmir and However, at the same time, Fair misses out on numerous other factors (perhaps deliberately, for hers is a study funded and published by a Right-wing organization close to the US establishment) that continue to fuel considerable Muslim resentment, including among madrasa students, in Pakistan—the on-going conflicts in Palestine and Iraq, in which the US is heavily implicated, and the continued American bombing of Afghanistan and now parts of Pakistan, too, being the most important. Fair also misses out the role of Pakhtun nationalism in the current militancy in Pakistan's North-West frontier as well as the role of Islam as a vehicle for expressing violent dissent against Pakistan's corrupt ruling class and its deadly alliance with the United States. Fair's analysis is, therefore, extremely limited, in that she seems to locate militancy as somehow internal to those madrasas that are said to be involved in it, and as seeming to have little to do with external factors, such as those just mentioned—which is surely not the case. The book's concluding chapter looks at the halting efforts on the part of the Pakistani state in promoting madrasa reforms. These reforms, Fair argues, have been largely, though not entirely, sought to be introduced at the behest of the Fair frankly confesses that US involvement in 'reforming' Pakistani madrasas has 'hurt more than it has helped, because it has served to de-legitimise the Government's efforts and reduced them to mere action items directed by Washington and London.' (p.92). Hence, she argues, 'the US would do well at least to consider ceasing public calls for madrassah reform in Pakistan' because of the backlash these calls have produced, making such 'reform' increasingly difficult. In this regard, she advises that 'The US should consider diminishing its public role and encouraging its partner and multilateral agencies to take a discreet role in these initiatives' (p.95). In other words, she does not advocate that the At the same time, Fair admits that many madrasa managers, as well as the majority of ordinary Pakistanis, do feel the need for substantial reforms in This immensely absorbing book cannot afford to be missed by anyone interested in ongoing debates about Islamic or Muslim education. |
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