, ISLAMABAD, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Pakistan's military ruler will meet Islamic scholars next month to urge them to broaden education in madrassahs, or Islamic mosque schools, often criticised by the West for churning out extremists.
President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally of the United States in its “war on terror”, told a youth conference that Islamic schools had an important role to play in society.
“Madrassahs are doing a very good job, providing food, board and lodging to poor children, which the government cannot do, but they only give Islamic education,” he said.
His carefully worded call for reform came a few days after one of the most influential pro-Taliban Islamic scholars vowed to resist government plans to reform madrassahs.
Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, who called for a jihad, or holy war, against the United States during the war in Afghanistan, said madrassahs would resist so-called reforms by the government.
Shamzai was reacting to the Pakistan interior minister's statement this month that the government was preparing a draft law to monitor the activities of madrassahs as part of measures to stem extremism.
Many members of the hardline Islamic Taliban emerged from madrassahs in Pakistan, and Afghan officials have accused such schools of producing militants who are active in Afghanistan.
Pakistan authorities say the vast majority of madrassahs are educational institutions and only a few are sources of militancy.
Estimates of the total number of madrassahs in Pakistan vary greatly with some official sources saying 11,000. But Musharraf said there were 6,000 to 7,000 Islamic schools in the country with 700,000 people studying there.
Though mainly educating poor Pakistani students, madrassahs have also enrolled thousands of Muslim foreigners, a source of concern for law enforcement agencies trying to stamp out Osama bin Laden's shadowy al Qaeda network, blamed for carrying out the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Madrassahs teach rudimentary maths and science, but mainly focus on Islamic and koranic studies and jealously guard against any government interference.
“There is a requirement that they are taught all subjects so that they can also become a doctor, or an engineer, banker or join the forces, or the civil service,” Musharraf said.
“I appeal to Ulema. I will meet them after Eid-ul Fitr, I am calling about 1,000 or 1,500 of them here. Let's teach them all subjects. This is very important. It is an area which cannot be ignored,” he added.
The festival of Eid-ul Fitr marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and is due to take place next week.
