“We don’t produce terrorists; we feed and educate poor children”
Zafar Anjum August 5, 2003
Posted by Chaghtai Khan Blog on SATURDAY, MAY 9, 2009
Madarsah System in India: Past, Present, and Future
by: Amir Ullah Khan, Mohammad Saqib and Zafar H. Anjum
At present, there are several thousand Islamic schools spread all across India. Most mosques have a primary religious school or maktab attached to them, where Muslim children learn the Qur’an and the basics of their faith. For children who desire to specialize in religious studies and train as imams and maulvis, numerous large seminaries or Madarsahs exist, with each Muslim sect having its own chain of such institutions. For many poor families, Madarsahs are the only source of education for their children, since they charge no fees and provide free boarding and lodging to their students [2]. Given the dismal level of access to education, and the increased mistrust [3] against the curricula of government schools, Madarsahs are often the only available educational option for children from poor Muslim families, who have the dubious distinction of being, along with Dalits, the least educated community in India.
The Taliban [4] in Afghanistan and the WTC tragedy [5] in the US have brought the ancient Madarsah [6] (religious school) into the limelight. Labelled as breeding grounds of Islamic terrorism, Madarsahs suddenly find themselves under harsh scrutiny. In India, Hindutva groups and sections of the government and the press have started a campaign against the Madarsahs, branding them as centres of obscurantism and breeding grounds for ‘terrorism.’
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