Madrasah Life – A Students Day At Nadwat Al Ulama pdf

Madrasah Life – A Students Day At Nadwat Al Ulama By Mohammed Akram Nadwi

MADRASAH LIFE

madrasah has attracted considerable attention, even notoriety, since the startling events of September nth.

Particularly among Western policymakers, it is widely believed that these schools and colleges are the training ground for radical activities and directly sustain terrorist networks such as al-Qa’ida.

No one a decade ago would have anticipated that a traditional educational institution would occupy a central place in discussions between the presidents of the United States and Pakistan.

But several months after the attacks on New York and Washington, in February 2002, George W. Bush and Pervez Musharraf agreed, in Bush’s words, that ‘the modern world requires an education system that trains children in basic sciences and reading and math and the history of Pakistan.

Musharraf conceded that, although madrasahs provide an important social welfare function, lodging and training the poor in particular, their weakness* lies in exclusive ‘religious* training.

 Fie assured the president that fundamental reforms to the curriculum, emphasizing science, mathematics, and English, would allow the 600,000 to 800,000 madrasah students in Pakistan £ to be brought into the mainstream of life?

Similar arguments have been made about madrasahs in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia . Under pressure from Western donors and facing organized internal opposition, governments have pledged to reform them.