Musharraf & Madrasas

Update August 1 2005: Related article from the Los Angeles Times - suspicions over U.S.-born extremists

Pakistan's President Purvez Musharaf is cracking down on foreigners heading off to Pakistan to study in their 20,000 madrasas or Islamic schools. This announcement sparked a reaction and hundreds of students, mostly from the madrassas protested against Musharaf's decision. More from Al-Jazeera.

A note on Islamic schools. We have all kinds of private religious schools in Ontario. We even have mothers who have chosen to home school their kids. This is all fine, well and good. But are they regulated?

To the extent of any regulation, there is a set curriculum given by the school boards for parents who are home schooling, which has curriculum guidelines for each grade. Then there are some more fundamental social concerns that are not addressed in the curriculum guidelines in the grade school range. Civics. Even if it is, how is anyone to know if they were taught?

Civics teaches about our political system, our Charter of Rights, the plurality of our nation that includes individuals who do not practice religion; those who practice differing religions; those who have preferred life-styles; face unique challenges like out indigenous peoples or those who strive for gender equality.

When I was a practicing Muslim (I'm not anymore and won't go back) the women within our community were very savvy to women's issues. Many Muslim women worked hard to get the male dominated community to listen to their concerns. (I have to admit I wasn't a very patient advocate). We believed that Islam was the answer to equality. As Muslim women we participated within the community functions and activities as much as the men, most of us who were single and could come and go easily.

The women who had children were more restricted as, more often than not, the fathers of the children did not participate in raising the children and the mothers could not attend all the activities promoting Islam. This was very often the case with many of the Canadian female converts I knew. The women were the sole teachers of their children. This is acknowledged in Islamic law and encouraged by Imams.

Many chose to put their kids in public school and quite a few of them chose home schooling specifically so they could teach Islam. Those who did home school, adopted the Salafist interpretation of Islam upon their conversion, which was what their husbands practiced, usually.

In order to teach their strict for of Islam, they would need curriculum. Depending on where the books were coming from or where the Quran was coming from, or who their Imam was who gave them the books etc., these children would be getting lessons as young new Ontarians, born into our pluralistic society, about what they should think and believe about themselves in relation to others in our culture.

It all depends on what they are taught and who teaches it.

In this context it's important to consider who the next generation of Muslims will be in Canada. Will they grow up with extreme beliefs and consider acting on violent interpretations of Islam? Or will they accept that others have as much right as they do, not only to practice their religion but to make a choice not to?

If Musharaf has recognized that the schools in Pakistan are fomenting hatred and destructive attitudes towards Western democracies, will our politicians recognize too, that our Canadian children also are not immune to teaching of democratic values or hatred of belief systems other than their own?