In the wake of the horrendous attack on a school in Peshawar on December 16, 2015, Pakistan has formulated the National Action Plan for counter terrorism. Attention has been focussed on immediate action points like the setting up of military courts and the hanging of terrorists.
However, madrassa reform is really the centre-piece of the long-term strategy to rid Pakistan of the culture of radicalisation and sectarianism and to change the extremist mind-set through a narrative that is inclusive and shuns violence.
This, however, is easier said than done. In the past, attempts at madrassa reforms by Pervez Musharraf, through the Pakistan Madrassa Education Board, were resisted for being foreign sponsored and came a cropper.
The problem with madrassas is three-fold: administrative, financial and curriculum related.
Administratively, the extent of problem itself is unknown. According to the Interior Ministry, there are at least 22,052 registered madrassas in Pakistan but there is no record of the unregistered ones. Likewise, the estimate of the numbers of students in madrassas varies from one million to three million. So when the Interior Minister says 10 percent of madrassas in the country directly promote militancy and violence, he could well be talking about one to three lakh of potential terrorists, a mind-boggling figure.
Second, a key source of funding of the madrassas is through non-banking or hawala channels, primarily from the Middle East. The Pak Senate was informed that only 23 madrassas (surprisingly none in Punjab) received foreign funding but these are possibly only registered madrassas. In fact, with the Interior Minister expressing difficulties in stopping foreign funding, the magnitude of the problem can be visualised.
A fundamental issue that is of far greater import is what is being taught in the madrassas and its corollary, what role in society does a madrassa education prepare its students for.
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Today, madrassa curriculum has become restricted to religion alone and the teaching of any other subject has disappeared from most madrassas.
As a result, with a madrassas education today, the students can hope to become only a maulvi in a mosque. Not surprisingly, many students join terrorist organisations since they are unfit for any responsible role in the society.
The problem is made worse by the fact that madrassas are run by different sects within Islam. Each madrassa seems to foster and deepen the sectarian divide in Pakistan, looking at other sects, let alone the minorities, with suspicion and even hatred.
Thus, without reforming the madrassa curriculum not much progress will be made in reclaiming society from radicalisation.
Opposition for reform comes from two sources: one are the madrassas themselves led by the Ittehad-i-Tanzeemat-i-Madaris (ITM), which claims to have around 25,000 madrassas running under five different wafaqs representing different sects. Though the government claims that the five wafaqs have agreed to registration and reforming the curriculum, it remains to be seen how this will be actually implemented.
The second source of opposition is the religious parties. For them, the madrassas recruits are the main source of street power. Any dilution in their hold over madrassas would reduce their relevance and power of disruption in society.
They plan to form a new political organisation against the attempts to subject madrassas to scrutiny and security checks. JUI (F) chief MaulanaFazl-u Rehman is playing the main role. Others involved are Hafiz Muhammad Saeed (Jamaatud Dawa), Maulana Samiul Haq (JUI-S), Siraj-ul-Haq Amir (Jamaat-e-Islami) etc.
What worries the government is coming together of the religio-political parties and various wafaq-ul-madris on one platform. Fortunately for the government, Imran Khan seems to have paused his protests, though the plans of Tahir-ul Qadri are not yet clear.
The crux of the problem, however, goes beyond administrative, financial and curriculum-related issues. This is the fact that madrassas exist because there is demand for them. They fulfil the need for education, especially for the poor. They also give their students free food and some even lodging. These are basic requirements that the state should be fulfilling but is not.
It is this link between madrassas and poverty that gets exploited by terrorist groups in finding among madrassas enough motivated recruits to keep them in business. As the National Internal Security Policy 2014-2018 underlined, religious rhetoric is used in madrassas to motivate students to undertake suicide missions.
But the terror groups themselves do not function in a vacuum. For decades now, the Pakistan state has looked upon terrorists and terrorist groups as an instrument of state policy as 'strategic assets'. The army, especially, has used such groups to further its designs in India and Afghanistan. Unless and until this nexus is broken by the Pakistan state, radicalised madrassas will always remain in business and no amount of madrassa reform will help to de-radicalise Pak society.
Military courts and hanging terrorists will not de-radicalise society. Registering madrassas, even changing the curriculum will only make a dent. The real impact will come when the nexus between the state agencies supporting terrorist groups and the terrorist groups needing mindless madrassa recruits to fulfil the Pakistan state's agenda is broken.
Till then, Pakistan would be barking up the wrong tree.
Let us hope, for Pakistan's sake, that it would not need another Peshawar school attack to break this evil nexus.
The views expressed in the above article are that of Mr. Salim Haq, an independent international affairs and security expert specialising in South Asia. He tweets at @salimhaq6.