With the promulgation of Madressah Registration Ordinance 2002, the debate on the role of religious education institutions and their syllabus has taken a new turn.

While the argument that madressah education does not meet the challenges of modern times and, therefore, needs to be modified and updated might be accepted for what it is, the issue of bringing about the desired improvement is an issue that merits sincere attention.

The promulgation of the ordinance in the present environment is not a good omen. While it might be necessary for the madaris to get registered and audit their accounts, employing the inept and corrupt official machinery to hold others into account at this point of time is a sure recipe for rise in the existing tension simmering on the issue. What is really needed is to understand the nature, use and purpose of madressah in society as well as its resistance to change. The best course would be to let the madressah change from within and introduce a meeting point between the religious and secular education systems.

Islam gives a revolutionary concept of knowledge and education: the one that blends the spiritual with the mundane, the religious with the secular. This revolutionary and all-embracing concept of knowledge was institutionalized in the form of madressah and Jamiah (university). This tradition flourished throughout the first twelve centuries of the Islamic era.

Although things had begun to weaken and the elements of distortion bad started appearing in the system after the Fall of Baghdad (13th century AC, 6th century Hijri), the real disintegration of the Islamic system took place in the post-18th century period. It was during the colonial rule that madressah education lost many of its dimensions and shrank into the shell of limited religious learning. A further shock was inflicted upon the system by the introduction of sectarian dimension, resulting in a shift of focus from the universal message of Islam to the limited sectarian concerns and priorities.

Muslim thinkers have been conscious of this situation and serious efforts have been made to reform the system from within, at least through three routes: (a) addition of modern disciplines in the old system; (b) establishment of institutions which could weld together the two streams of religious and secular education and (c) to build bridges between the two systems, so that the two could interact, with linkages at different levels ensuring movement from one system to the other. All these developments had nothing to do with the contemporary tirade against the madressah education.

After September 11, somewhat vicious interest is being taken in the madressah education. Although this new interest can be traced back to the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979, and the advent of Taliban in 1995/96, the real floodgate was opened after the September 11. Many articles and studies have appeared in the American and European media, demonizing the institution of madressah and tracing every act of real or imaginary terrorism to madressah education.

Religious education is an integral part of the Muslim society and culture. It is impossible to visualize any Muslim society without appropriate institutional arrangement for religious education. However, religious education should weld into the mainstream education and the mainstream education itself should be permeated with the values of the Muslim society and culture and produce educated men and women who, on the one hand are equipped with the state of the art knowledge and skills needed in our own times and on the other be imbued with idealism, morality and character. That is the defining character of Islamic education.

Significant improvements have been made within the madressah education during the last 54 years of Pakistan’s existence and more changes are in the pipeline. International Islamic University, Islamabad, represents a new experiment to fuse together the streams of religious knowledge and modern knowledge into a harmonious whole; so is the International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur.

It must be noted that the quantitative expansion of madressah education in Pakistan is neither linked to the Zia era (1977-88), as is commonly alleged, nor is it an accidental phenomenon. The growth of the system is related to the growth of population and the socio-economic development of the Pakistani society. It becomes all the more imperative because of the failure of the public education system. Public sector education has not kept pace with the growth of population and the economy. Hardly 50 per cent of the school-going boys and girls have access to primary education, and that too of a very low quality.

Almost 50 per cent dropout takes place at the primary stage, because the system is incapable of providing good education, congenial climate and proper incentives. Facilities at middle, secondary and higher stages of education leave much to be desired. The whole education system is in a mess.

Madressah education has provided an opportunity to the poorer and less privileged sections of society – both in urban and rural areas – to at least acquire a modicum of knowledge through these traditional institutions and equip themselves with certain skills to make a living. Religious institutions are not producing educated-unemployed, as is the case with the modern education sector. These institutions are being run on public charity.

The support from the government source does not cover even five per cent of the cost of madressah education. A research conducted by Aga Khan Foundation has shown that while public sector allocation to education at all levels is about 2.2 percent of the GDP, private charities, mainly motivated by the religious and moral considerations, are providing support to education, relief and social care activities to the tune of 70 billion rupees per year. People’s voluntary support to them is an index of their confidence in these institutions and the social good that is being promoted through them.

There are many misgivings about the products of these institutions. The reality is much different from some of the concocted perceptions. There is a pressing need to undertake properly researched studies to understand the nature and dimension of the madressah education. The picture that would thus emerge would be very different from the one that is being projected abroad by the western media and by the so-called secular lobby in this country.

There is no denying the fact that there are problems and pitfalls in madressah education, as everywhere else. The religious leadership in this country needs to take note of that. There have been certain sectarian outbursts, which have no justification in religion or the traditions of our culture and morality. But these aberrations do not represent the norm. Unfortunately, there are aberrations in every system and culture.

Who can deny that if the life histories of the persons accused of terrorism – in different parts of the world, whether belonging to the Muslim society or American, European or Japanese – are analyzed, they would not provide any credence to the alleged religious roots or links with madressah or similar institutions of religious education of different countries of the world.

Those alleged to be responsible for the September 11 terrorism are supposed to be the products of modern education, not only in their own countries, but also of the institutions of higher learning and technology in Europe and America. The recent massacre at a school in Germany was resorted to by none other than a product of the same school. So has been the case in respect of some of the major terrorist outbursts in America during the last two decades. It is too simplistic to attribute terrorism to any religion, culture or set of educational institutions.

Despite all the shortcomings of madressah education – and these need to be rectified – an overwhelming majority of those who seek religious education are conscious of the need for modern education, new technologies, religious tolerance and democratic processes of change. They are keenly interested in having access to modern disciplines and technologies to build a better future for themselves and their country.

This provides a basis for building national consensus and integrating the two systems of education – religious and modern. Every step in this direction would pave the way for a better Pakistan and a glorious future for the Islamic world.