The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan (review)

[ 182 ] asia policy The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan C. Christine Fair Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2008 • 180 pp. Thisvolumeseekstoexploretheconnectionsbetweeneducationandmilitancy in Pakistan by focusing on the varied institutions where Islamic education is obtained. main argument This book argues that madaris (plural for madrasah, or Islamic schools) in Pakistan, with relatively few students, pose particular and well-known policy problems. Madaris are not schools of last resort but likely reflect parental preferences valuing religious education. This book also shows, however, that fewer students use madaris for full-time education than is often believed, and points out that religious education is not the exclusive purview of madaris. Public schools present numerous, less well-known challenges. policy implications • Given that madaris are not the only sources of militant manpower in Pakistan and given their overall low market share of students, the importance of madaris to global security may be exaggerated. Madaris do, however, have local import, appearing to produce students who are more obscurantist. Madaris, Pakistani analysts believe, foster sectarian tensions and possibly violence at least in part because madaris champion the superiority of their own interpretive tradition while propounding the inferiority of adherents of different traditions. • U.S. efforts to encourage Islamabad to reform madaris have produced substantial backlash, which has also tainted U.S.-assisted efforts to reform Pakistan’s public schools. Pakistanis see U.S. efforts as attempts to de‑Islamize the school system. • The U.S. is seen as hostile to Islam in Pakistan and is understood to be involvedindiminishingIslam’sroleinPakistan’seducationalsystem.TheU.S. thus may want to consider ways of working silently through other partners (such as multilateral agencies) and other countries (such as Canada and the United Kingdom). All efforts to help Pakistan reform its educational system should consider parental preferences, which consistently demonstrate a desire that children become good Muslims through education. ...