[Reader-list] A Madrasa with a Difference

Jeebesh Bagchi jeebesh at sarai.net
Sat Jul 28 12:14:43 IST 2007 

When i read this kind of postings, i wonder from which location is it  
being posted. Is the author sitting in his/her office (with  
alienating colleagues and threatening bosses), or college access  
points, or from cyber-cafes (with meter running fast), or from inside  
the home after a lonely day.

Why so much angst?

best
j


On 28-Jul-07, at 11:36 AM, jumana bandukwala wrote:

>
> Ms Jogi is doing nothing but advocating to make India a hot bed of  
> bloody terrorists. She supports the arm training of vidyabhavan,  
> durga vahini, and other RSS wings, which is against the Indian law  
> but these are happening very much in the constitutional area of  
> India. And the governments are well aware of it but since the  
> governments are pro hindu they turn deaf ear to all this and then  
> blame only the muslim people who are fighting for discrimination in  
> public services, schools, colleges, and above all police and army  
> attrocities. RSS members are in army and police who does fake  
> killings of innocent muslim youths and raping minor girls in  
> Kashmir, Gujarat, Maharastra and other Muslim dominated areas. They  
> are above Indian Law such as TADA, POTA, MOCOCA, and the likes just  
> because they are HINDUS. So many innocent muslims killed by the  
> hindus fanatics (RSS members) but not a single person had been on  
> trial even after media present their faces but they stil going scot  
> free
>  just because they are RSS men.
>
>   Now decide who is the real terrorist breeder. But nothing to say  
> as Indian muslims are subject to these kind of attrocities even  
> after giving their lives for India. We should kill the reason  
> behind all these activities then we can have good and peaceful India.
>
>   Think twice before blaming others.
>
>
>
> Vedavati Jogi <vrjogi at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> To develop a national system of education which may mould the  
> posterity into such a youthful generation as fully saturated with  
> the feelings of Hindutva and patriotism, having completely attained  
> all-round physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual development
>
> equating vidyabhavan with terrorist breeding madrasas is nothing  
> but mental bankruptcy. imagine muslim dominated india in 2050 where  
> hindus will be in minority. do you want your next generation to  
> experience the 1947 partition trauma again? 1947 happened 60 years  
> back, you might have forgotten that...just 18years back what we  
> experienced in muslim dominated kashmir....can you afford to forget  
> that?
> we need many more vidyabhavans, many more rss...
>
> vedavati
>
>
> From: prashant at csdms.inTo: mrsg at vsnl.com; reader- 
> list at sarai.netDate: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:17:43 +0530Subject: Re:  
> [Reader-list] A Madrasa with a Difference
> <>
> If you read the responses of the so called 'modern clergy', you  
> will see that there is a distinction being made about the morally  
> good modernity and morally corrupt modernity. This is typical of  
> half baked ideas of secularism being accepted, wherein the  
> traditions cannot be challenged on the grounds of tolerance. In  
> fact many traditions of hindu life are to be challenged too and one  
> is surprised that these orthodoxies are not event entering the  
> discussions. There is clearly a class issue which is neglected. So  
> the women are to decide how to be huh. What if a majority of women  
> say they want to carry on with obnoxious traditions? What then?  
> Difference for difference's sake becomes a mantra for upholding  
> community values and not one for an individual to challenge not  
> just the extreme orthodoxies but those that are current in everyday  
> life.
>
> There is no point in potraying religious education as secular.  
> There is a point however in breaking the trope of the Madrassa as a  
> tarining camp for future terrorists and extremists.
>
> Perhaps a more worrysome case is that of the Safron Schools like  
> the Vidya Bharati network of schools, whose self-professed vision  
> is "To develop a national system of education which may mould the  
> posterity into such a youthful generation as fully saturated with  
> the feelings of Hindutva and patriotism, having completely attained  
> all-round physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual development".
>
> This is a much bigger network. It has about 6000 schools under its  
> arm. The Vidya Bharati also controls some 60 colleges and 25 higher  
> education institutions. Frontline did a cover on these schools in  
> 1998. But they do not seem to draw the deserved flak from society.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: MRSG
> To: Yogi Sikand ; reader-list at sarai.net
> Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 11:44 AM
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] A Madrasa with a Difference
>
> First the dignity of veil, then a secular Huriayat which loves  
> Hindus and Buddhist and now a Modern Madrasa. Hope all these can be  
> considered as a comic relief for serious reader-list netizens.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: Yogi Sikand
> To: reader-list at sarai.net
> Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 10:01 AM
> Subject: [Reader-list] A Madrasa with a Difference
> A Madrasa with a DifferenceYoginder SikandContrary to how the media  
> generally portrays them,madrasas in
> India are not entirely opposed to reform.Indeed, the winds of  
> change are being felt even in theportals of the more conservative  
> madrasas, such as thevast network of Deobandi seminaries spread  
> across the
> country. One such instance is the recently-establishedJamia ul- 
> Umoor, in New Delhi's Muslim-dominated AbulFazl locality. Set up in  
> 2005, the Jamia ul-Umoor is the brainchildof two young graduates of  
> the Dar ul-Ulum, Deoband,
> India's largest and most influential madrasa.Maulanas Khalid  
> Saifullah Qasmi and Azmatullah Qasmi,the men behind this venture,  
> are both in theirmid-twenties and represent a new generation  
> ofDeobandi scholars eager to embrace and promote modern
> knowledge along with traditional Islamic learning.After having  
> received their degree from Deoband theyenrolled at the Dar ul- 
> Umoor, in Srirangapatanam, near
> Mysore, for a year's course in a range of'modern' disciplines. Like  
> their teachers, the twenty-odd students at Jamiaul-Umoor are all  
> graduates of the Deoband madrasa.Having completed a rigorous eight- 
> year course in
> Islamic Studies there, in the Jamia they are now beingexposed to a  
> whole new world of learning. The two-yearcourse that they are  
> undergoing consists of lessons inEnglish, Computers, Economics,  
> History, Geography,
> Mathematics, Management, Political Science, PhysicalSciences,  
> Journalism and Comparative Religions—allsubjects that they have  
> had little or no exposure toin their years at Deoband. Judging by  
> the ease with
> which the students converse in English, despite havingstudied it  
> for less than half a year, they seem to befast and eager learners  
> and their five teachers,zealous instructors. The students, neatly  
> dressed in spotless kurta-pajamas
> and topis, sit in a circle on a large quilt. On beingprompted by  
> his teachers, Tauqir Qasmi, who has justturned twenty, stands up  
> and delivers an impassionedspeech in Arabic on the importance of  
> modern education
> and on how Islam positively encourages it. Hiscolleague, Aslam  
> Rafiqi Qasmi, follows after him, witha remarkably clear speech in  
> English on the problemsof the Indian Muslims. He refers to the  
> 'shameful
> and lamentable' Partition of India and the'massive and most  
> horrendous' killings of Hindus,Muslims and Sikhs that ensued. The  
> Indian Muslims, hesays, 'continue to pay a heavy price for  
> thePartition', being 'wrongly branded as
> anti-nationals by many Hindus'. He refers to theliterally thousands  
> of Muslims who have lost theirlives in hundreds of organized  
> pogroms and riots inIndia since 1947, and of the discrimination  
> that they
> continue to face in many spheres. He ends his speechby stressing  
> the need for Muslims to take to bothreligious as well as modern  
> education. The welcome addresses over, I sit with the studentsand  
> discuss their studies. One of them wants to know
> how to secure admission in the English department ofthe university  
> I teach in. Another wants to know howhe can get the articles he has  
> written published inthe Times of India. A third asks me, in impeccable
> English, 'Why are Muslims, especially the ulema ofDeoband, thought  
> of as terrorists by many, while theyhad actually played a leading  
> role in India'santi-colonial struggle?'. The students and their  
> teachers insist that the
> Deobandi elders are not against modern education perse, as is  
> commonly imagined. Hasan, a young studentfrom
> Bihar, argues, 'Islam says that all beneficialknowledge can be  
> acquired and so our ulema have neveropposed what is good in the  
> modern educational system.What they were opposed to, however, was  
> Western
> culture. We can and, indeed, should acquire knowledgeof all the  
> beneficial modern disciplines, providedthis is done according to  
> our culture and that ithelps us become better Muslims'. Ali,  
> anotherstudent, adds, 'In Islam, there is no distinction
> between religious and secular education. All forms ofbeneficial  
> knowledge should be had'. Says anotherstudent, Abdur Rahman,  
> 'Learning English, ComputerApplications and other modern subjects  
> will help us in
> our task to telling others about Islam'. Maulana Furqan, senior  
> teacher, nods his head inagreement. He tells me that three  
> graduates of Jamiaul-Umoor's first batch, which passed out last  
> year,are now studying at a regular university, the Jamia
> Millia Islamia, in New Delhi. 'We want our graduatesto go on to  
> join universities and then take up a range
> of careers, not necessarily as maulvis or religiousspecialists', he  
> says. 'In the past, madrasasproduced both ulema as well architects,  
> astronomers,scientists and so on', he informs me, 'and so wemust go  
> back to that holistic conception of education
> and bridge the gulf between the ulema and those whohave studied in  
> universities'. 'Working in variousfields, and not just as maulvis,  
> our students can playan important role in promoting social reforms  
> as well
> as communicating the message of Islam to others', headds. 'In  
> today's world, you need to know Englishin order to tell others  
> about Islam. Also, there is awealth of useful knowledge in  
> English', he explains.
> 'Hence', he stresses, 'it is important thatmaulvis, too, must learn  
> the language'. I ask Maulana Khalid Saifullah what he feels about  
> theargument of some conservative maulvis that madrasastudents  
> should not enroll in colleges for fear that
> they might go astray.'It depends on the individual student',  
> heanswers. 'If the students' moral and religioustraining is sound,  
> there is no reason to fear thattheir faith would weaken if they  
> join universities. In
> fact, they might have a positive impact on otherstudents, who  
> might, by witnessing their example, seekto come closer to  
> religion'. 'To further strengthen their commitment to thefaith', he  
> adds, 'we arrange for pious Sufi
> scholars to come here to interact with the students,so that, by  
> being in the company of men of God, theywill learn to devote  
> themselves to the faith, ratherthan to the pleasures of the world'.  
> Maulana Saifullah tells me about the 25 other students
> of the Jamia ul-Umoor, who are enrolled in the hifzcourse to  
> memorise the Quran. In contrast to mostother institutions that  
> specialize in hifz, thestudents here must also study English,  
> Mathematics and
> Science. He also refers to his plans to arrange forhis students to  
> simultaneously enroll for the tenthgrade examinations, so that  
> after they finish theircourse they can join various different  
> departments in
> regular universities. 'Our ulema must keepthemselves abreast of  
> modern knowledge andcontemporary developments', he stresses. 'That  
> isessential for them to provide proper leadership to thecommunity'.
> Innovative madrasas like the Jamia ul-Umoor areincreasingly visible  
> today, although the media rarely,if ever, refers to them. These  
> institutions indicatethe possibility of bridging the rigid dualism  
> thatcharacterizes Muslim education, between the ulema and
> those who have studied in 'modern' institutions,something crucial  
> for promoting education amongMuslims more  
> generally.------------------------------------------Yoginder Sikand  
> works with the Centre for
> JawaharlalNehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia,
> New Delhi
>
>
>
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