December 23, 2018: CODE PAKISTAN held a consultative dialogue in Karachi today with a group of religious scholars and youth on co-creating entry points for madrasah engagement.
The participants of the dialogue expressed reservations over the association of madrassahs with terrorism and the government’s security-centric approach toward them. The participants emphasized that madrassahs needed to be viewed as benefactors of the society rather than as a security risk. They maintained that by providing free education to hundreds of thousands of students, the madrassahs were doing a great educational service to the community.
Some participants said that there wasn’t as much need of reform in the madrassahs as there was in mainstream education institutions, public sector and private universities, hospitals, and even government departments. The participants of the dialogue were of the view that there was a need for promoting inter-sectarian harmony among the madrassahs.
Some participants also alluded toward the weaknesses in the curriculum of the madrassahs. They argued that the madrassah curriculum needed to incorporate modern learning into its curriculum. The participants were in favor of external assistance for the teaching of contemporary subjects in madrassahs, including training of madrassah teachers.
The need for greater interaction and dialogue between the students of universities and madrassahs was highly emphasized in the dialogue. The participants called for doing away with the difference between a “mullah” and a “Mr.”
The participants of the consultation included the following prominent religious scholars: Maulana Ashraf Gormani, Mohtamim, Jamia Abu Bakar, Karachi; Mr. Salman Akbar, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Karachi; Rasheed Ahmed, Jamia al-Rasheed; Maulana Akhtar Mohammadi, Mohtamim, Madrassah Ayesha Siddiqa, Karachi; Maulana Yousuf Salafi, Dean, Jamia Ihsan, Karachi; Maulana Jehan Yaqoob, Editor, Weekly Akhbar ul Madaris; Dr. Mohammad Ishaq Alam, Professor, Karachi University; Maulana Abdullah Ameer, Religious Scholar; Maulana Hussain Ahmed, Madrassah Anwar ul Uloom Qasmia, Ghotki; Hafiz Mohammad Owais Alam, Student, Jamia Binoria, Karachi; Mr. Qazi Mohammad Haris, Lecturer at various colleges in Karachi, Aamir Ahmed Usmani, Student, Jamia al-Rashid, Karachi.