[Reader-list] A Madrasa with a Difference

[gouri]

I have been following the debate on Madrasa sitting in
karachi.
Its hard look at madrasas or any institutions of
religious colours combining religion/religiously
oriented education with Modern education as a sign of
progressivenessand look at them kindly, if you are
living in Karachi.

Here,most Madrasas claim to be that..they all have
courses in Journalism, media,even literature and show
over-eagerness in conversing in English.However, many
of them support terrorism, have given shelter to
terrorists and have arms.
RSS run schools may not be directly involved in armed
training and having arms on their campuses  but they
are certainly propogating a supremacist theory and
they too are upholding use of violence very openly.

When I mentioned the spread of Vidya-Bharati schools
to my Husband, he said that its still better than
Madrasas. The students in Madrasas can only hope to
become Pesh-Imams of mosques (and we dont have as many
mosques). The Students of Vidya bharati school will be
employed gainfully in many ways, only they will be
religiously opiniated.
Being a Pakistani born into a Muslim family,who has
suffered religious extremism, He doesn't understand I
felt,the dangers of  Vidya Bharati brand of education.

This morning he pointed out a news report on the
competion held by All Karachi Bainul Madaris Speech
contest which awarded a student a cash prize of
Rs.1,25,000 for his speech,arguing that though Islam
allowed freedom of expression,our opinion should be
according to Islamic principals.That matters already
outlined in Islam do not require further debate. "this
is the kind of money they ghve access to these
days",he said.

(this was published in 'Daily Times'-Karachi
suppliment,28 July,2007)
--- Prashant <prashant at csdms.in> wrote:

> 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, 
=== message truncated ===>
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