The problem in Pakistan is not the madrasahs

According to many experts.

As Robert Templer of the International Crisis Group told RFE/RL:

"It is the secular education that needs to be improved. If people in Pakistan are given a choice, they will send their children to the better-run schools -- no matter what their religious convictions are. Wealthy and well-educated Pakistanis do not go to madrasahs. They go to a whole host of other schools, but certainly not madrasahs. What is needed is a state system that provides opportunities for far more people than it currently does."

Of course that's not to deny, as Templer goes on to note:

"There are a small number of very extreme madrasahs like the Red Mosque that need to be closed down," Templer says. "These are institutes that are fostering sectarian violence. They've caused thousands of deaths in the past decades. They are training militants. They are preaching hatred. They are a source of dangerous publications, tape recordings, preachings. These need to be closed down. I don't think any modern state could tolerate essentially vigilante armies in its own territory operating in this way. And I don't think these madrasahs are 'reformable' as such. They need to be closed down."

But as as the RFE/RL continued:

"We can see how the madrasahs have responded to the [Red Mosque] crisis," [Rasul Baksh] Rais[, a newspaper columnist and political scientist] says. "The federation of religious institutions has cut the two madrasahs [at the Red Mosque complex] from their [accreditation] list. They cut them off the list and they did not give them any legitimacy or any recognition. We don't see any uprisings at any major madrasahs throughout the country.

ISG study concludes Pakistan's madrasas are a threat to regional peace

The International Crisis Group has concluded its study of Pakistan's madrasas. According to its report:

Pakistan's "well-financed networks of madrasas...pose a significant threat not only to the city’s residents but also to domestic stability and regional and international security."

Despite well-publicized intentions to reform the madrasa sector, Pakistan's madrasas continue to thrive because of "poverty and lack of job opportunities; deplorable public schools; the sectarian tilt of state institutions; and the military government’s reliance for political survival on the religious parties and its attempts to marginalise moderate voices and forces."

The ISG suggests that the Pakistani government should at the very least (and I paraphrase here):

• close extremist and jihadi madrasas;
• [monitor the schools'] teachers and students, financial flows and expenditures;
• reform the madrasas' curriculum to exclude sectarian and pro-jihad teachings; and
• enforce existing laws that ban hate speech and incitement to violence.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like any such reforms will happen any time soon. The ISG sees Pakistan's madrasa problem as symptomatic of the country's lack of democracy:

So long as the military continues to rely on the mullahs to retain power, madrasas and the violent extremism they encourage are likely to become even more powerful in Pakistani society, undermining the security of the state and beyond. Real reform – of the education system and madrasas alike – will only be possible through the strengthening of the country’s moderate parties and forces, with free and fair national elections an essential precondition and first step.