The Hindu : Pak. madrassas plan stir

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 07, 2002

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Pak. madrassas plan stir

Islamabad July 6. Clerics representing thousands of religious schools in Pakistan, today threatened to launch nationwide demonstrations to protest new laws that would regulate their finances, the enrolment of overseas students and prevent the teaching of Islamic extremism.

After a meeting with top Government officials to discuss the new rules, the heads of religious schools gave the Government two weeks to withdraw the regulations.

In a statement issued after the meeting, Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat, an alliance of organisations representing about 8,000 religious schools, said it would organise demonstrations if the regulations were not abandoned.

``We neither give training in militancy to anyone, nor collect donations in the name of `jehad' (holy war). Our sole aim is to prepare Islamic scholars.''

Yet they refused to identify the sources of their funding, a key demand made by the Government.

Some of the madrassas are considered key training grounds of militancy. Some had produced scholars who later became central figures in the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

The Musharraf Government had announced new laws which would have the madrassas register with the Government, introduce subjects such as maths, science, English, etc., in their syllabus, seek Government permission before admitting foreign students and to disclose their funding sources.

— AP

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