Musharraf Vows to Revamp Madrassas

Jan. 15 -- Over the past three months, the Institute of Islamic Studies in Islamabad, Pakistan, has seen a number of strange visitors walk through its gates.

Since the U.S. military campaign began in neighboring Afghanistan, Western journalists have visited the Islamic educational establishment for a close-up view of the sort of religious schools, or madrassas, that spawned the hard-line Taliban.

And though Badruddin — a school official who goes by one name — says he knows what's on their minds, he nevertheless ushers camera crews into the school to check out the three computers and the math and English classes that the school is so proud of.

"There is disinformation in America," he says simply. "Many journalists come here, but they do not find anything here, not even a knife."

While few of the estimated 8,000 madrassas functioning across Pakistan provide military training on their premises, many madrassas have been known to foster a conservative, often limited, sometimes misguided education that has fostered religious extremism across parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Like most developing countries, Pakistan is a nation of contradictory images. While the elite educate their children in prestigious private educational establishments in the cities, the bulk of Pakistan's 145 million people have a choice of either a struggling public education system or madrassas.

Funded largely by donations from Islamic institutions and individuals abroad — primarily from Saudi Arabia — and providing free education, boarding and lodging, for most Pakistanis, madrassas function as a de facto welfare system that few non-governmental organizations, let alone the Pakistani government, can match.

But images of young boys swaying to the din of Koranic verses recited by rote during class and populating anti-America rallies after class have alerted the international community to the dangers of indoctrination some madrassas pose.

And now that the military campaign in Afghanistan has put Pakistan back in diplomatic and economic business with billions of dollars of economic aid and developmental loans coming its way, the pressure is on the Pakistani government to do something about the madrassas.

Musharraf Rises to the Challenge