Attacking the Roots of Radical Islamism: How one Org is Reforming Madrassas in Pakistan
If only fanatics are willing to take up the [mission, crusade, deen, direct action, ] of teaching children, if only they persist in the badlands and hinterlands, what does the world become like over time?
For the past seven years, our NGO (The International Center for Religion & Diplomacy) has been working in Pakistan to reform the madrasas, including those that gave birth to the Taliban.
Few in the West are mindful of the illustrious history of these religious schools; but from the Middle Ages through the sixteenth century, they were without peer as institutions of higher learning. It was only European exposure to them that led to the creation of our own university system in the West. In a later reaction to British colonialism, however, and out of a fear of losing their Muslim identity, the madrasas purged their curriculums of all disciplines that they deemed to be Western or secular in nature-to the point where the majority of them today focus solely on rote memorization of the Koran and the study of Islamic principles.