Educational Resilience to Non-Traditional Security Challenges in Pakistan: A Study of Madrassa Education’s Role in Religious Radicalization

Abstract

As the primary educational institution in Islamic culture, Madrassas have always been revered in Muslim societies. However, during the 17th-century movements for Islamic reform in the Muslim world, the role of these madrassas expanded from mere educational institutions to become the nurturers of traditional Islamic ideas and responsible for social reforms. In Pakistan, Gen. Zia introduced a drastic change through his Madrassa reforms based on the Sargodha and Halepota reports. Since then, the madrassa curriculum was transformed to follow Islamic law (Sharia) strictly, and pushed for the return to the pure Islam that the early Muslims (Salaf) followed. Spreading new ideas in religious practices (bid‘a) was extremely opposed, initiating the politics of exclusion from Islam. This paper analyzes the contents of three books i.e., Behishti Zevar, Qanun-i-Shariat, and Fiqh al-Sunnah taught in some leading religious madrassas in Pakistan, and argues that these teachings are fostering religious radicalization in Pakistan. Instead of countering the non-traditional security challenges through education, the Pakistani state made religious madrassas cradles for religious radicalization.