By IANS
New Delhi : As India debates about reforming Islamic seminaries, a leading Pakistani academic has warned that the dangers from madrassas should not be minimized and they should be shut down where necessary.
Pervez Hoodbhoy of Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad also says that it was "absurd" to assume that introduction of computers or teaching of English could transform the character of the seminaries.
Writing about the Lal Masjid crisis in People's Democracy, the official organ of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Hoodbhoy said the dangers from the madrassas needed to be appreciated.
"It is not just their gun-toting militants but the climate of intolerance they create in society," said Hoodbhoy, who is chairman and professor in the university's department of physics.
"Where and when necessary, and after sufficient warning, they must be shut down," he said. "Establishment of new madrassas must be strictly limited."
He quoted apologists for madrassas as saying that only 5-10 percent of the seminaries breed militancy.
"But if the number of Pakistani madrassas is 20,000 (give or take a few thousand; nobody knows for sure), this amounts to 1,000-2,000. Although all are not equally lethal, this is surely a lot of dangerous fringe."
He went on: "It was absurd to have assumed that introducing computers or teaching English could have transformed the character of madrassa education away from brain-washing and rote memorisation towards logical behaviour and critical thinking.
"Did the adeptness with which Lal Masjid managed its website really bring it into the 21st century? Madrassas are religious institutions; they cannot be changed into normal schools.
"It is time to give up wasting money and effort in attempting to reform them and, instead, to radically improve the public education system and make it a viable alternative."
Hoodbhoy, who is also a leading propagator of rationalism in Pakistan, argued that those who preach hatred in mosques and call for violence against the citizens of Pakistan should be denied the opportunity to do so.
He demanded that illegally operated FM radio stations in Pakistani territory bordering Afghanistan run by clerics be shut down.
Asserting that the Lal Masjid crisis was a direct consequence of President Pervez Musharraf's attitude towards Islamic militancy, he said: "The crime of mullahs, because they are committed in the name of Islam, go unpunished today.
"The situation in Pakistan's tribal areas is dire and deteriorating. Inspired by the fiery rhetoric from mosques, fanatics murder doctors and health workers administering polio shots.
"They blow up video shops and girls schools, kill barbers who shave beards, stone alleged adulterers to death, and destroy billboards with women's faces. No one is caught or punished.
"Pakistan's civil society has chosen to remain largely silent, unmoved by this barbarism. This silence has allowed tribal extremism to migrate effortlessly into the cities.
"Except for the posh areas of the largest metropolises, it is now increasingly difficult for a woman to walk bare faced through most city bazaars."
Hoodbhoy ended his commentary by saying that the Islamic clerics do not consider as immoral "such things as exploiting workers, cheating customers, bribing officials, beating wives, not paying taxes or breaking traffic rules.
"(Their) morality is interpreted almost exclusively in relation to women and perceived Western cultural invasion."