A long battle to monitor religious schools is collapsing in Pakistan

They lure millions of poor Pakistani children with the simple promise of free education, meals and housing. For religious families, it offers Islamic education rooted in ancient traditions.

But for the Pakistani government and Western counterterrorism officials, religious institutes known as madrassas also represent a potential threat. These institutions have long been accused of contributing to violence and extremism, and providing recruits for the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other armed groups.

Now Pakistan’s Islamic schools are at the center of an intense political struggle – a clash that threatens years of hard-won progress toward bringing religious institutes under the government’s regulatory umbrella.

The conflict dates back to 2019, when the government issued a sweeping reform requiring religious schools to register with the Ministry of Education. This effort, which aimed to increase the accountability of institutions that have historically operated with minimal state oversight, received strong support from Pakistan’s military establishment, but faced stiff resistance from Islamist political parties.

In October 2024, the largest of these parties, the Association of Islamic Scholars, reached an agreement with the government to end registration requirements. Under the agreement, religious schools will be registered as they were before 2019, under a colonial-era law that regulates charitable, scientific and educational associations. This law provides little oversight Curriculum, activities or funding.

In return, the Association of Islamic Scholars agreed to support unrelated constitutional amendments regarding judicial appointments It ignited a storm of controversy.

As the end of the year approaches, the government has not yet implemented this change. The report cited concerns that a return to the old system could undermine counter-terrorism efforts, weaken oversight and violate international obligations to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

The delay sparked threats of anti-government protests in the capital, Islamabad, adding to the challenges the government faces amidst this. Frequent marches by supporters Imran Khan, the deposed Prime Minister.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, warned in Parliament last month: “We are firm on the agreed upon madrasa registration conditions and will ensure that they are adhered to.” “If the government deviates, the decision will not be made in Parliament, but in the streets.”

Late last week, the government finally approved the new registration provision, allowing religious schools to choose between modern oversight and a colonial-era framework. In fact, the move ignores 2019 efforts to reform religious schools in favor of short-term political stability.

When Pakistan was created 77 years ago, the number of madrasas was in the dozens. They gained prominence and grew significantly in the 1980s, when American and Arab funding turned them into recruitment centers for Islamic volunteers to fight Soviet forces in neighboring Afghanistan. Today, there are about 30,000 religious schools in Pakistan.

She said Pakistan came under increasing pressure to regulate religious schools after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Abdul Rahman Shaha school affairs expert affiliated with Tongji University in Shanghai.

“The war on terrorism after September 11 and events like… 2005 London bombings “It has raised global concerns about the lack of effective monitoring of religious schools,” Mr Shah said.

After the militants Attack Army-run school in northwest Pakistan in 2014, killing more than 145 people — most of them children — monitoring religious schools has become key in counter-terrorism efforts. Shah said security agencies used GPS to map schools and carried out raids and interrogations targeting religious institutes suspected of being linked to militants.

In 2019, the government established the new regulatory framework to limit the influence of Islamist parties over the religious seminary boards that govern religious schools. More than 17,500 schools with 2.2 million students have been registered with the Ministry of Education, according to official data.

The registration has simplified visa procedures for international students, with madrassas attracting increasing interest not only from Pakistani expatriates but also from students in African and Southeast Asian countries.

However, many religious institutes, especially those allied with Islamist parties, including the country’s largest and most prominent, have resisted integration into the formal system, citing fear of government interference in religious education.

After the government agreed last October to end the requirement to register with the Ministry of Education, officials hesitated to move forward in part because of intense scrutiny by the Financial Action Task Force, a global watchdog based in Paris.

The task force has been established Pakistan is on the “gray list”“From 2018 to 2022 for deficiencies in combating money laundering and terrorist financing – a designation that often leads to decreased foreign investment and increased financial oversight.

“The main demand of the FATF was to take tough action against terrorist financing, especially targeting UN-listed individuals and entities, including their religious schools,” he said. Sana Ahmedassistant professor of law at the University of Calgary, researches illicit financial flows and terrorist financing.

To comply with the requirements of the Task Force, Pakistan in 2019 And took control of several Schools associated with banned armed groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

But after more than two decades of increased scrutiny of religious schools, education experts say the efforts ignore a deeper crisis: the country’s faltering public education system, which is failing to meet the needs of millions of children, especially from low-income families.

Pakistan has the second highest number of out-of-school children in the world, with 22.8 million children between the ages of 5 and 16 not going to school – 44% of this age group, according to a report. UNICEF.

Religious schools, supported by private donations, partly fill gaps in the public system. For many poor families, it is the only viable option.

One day, in a modest building in a low-income neighborhood in southern Pakistan, the air was filled with the voices of young people reciting verses from the Qur’an.

Inside, hundreds of young people – some barely in their teens – sat cross-legged on woven mats. Their heads, covered with cotton hats, were bent over Islamic books, and their fingers were drawing Arabic letters. Some of them memorized the noble verses.

Religious schools emphasize the Islamic faith, often with sectarian leanings, and the Arabic language, which is not widely spoken in Pakistan. While not all schools are associated with extremism, many promote a narrow interpretation of Islam, emphasizing doctrinal purity and defending Islam against other religions.

Critical thinking and open dialogue are not essential. The resistance of religious schools to incorporating subjects such as computer science or mathematics leaves graduates ill-equipped for the contemporary job market.

For many families, it is not poverty, but religious conviction, that drives them to enroll their children in religious schools.

“I can send my children to private schools to study computers and science, but I send them to a madrasa because I want them to study Islamic education,” said Abdul Wahab, a real estate dealer in Karachi, southern Pakistan.

Like many religious people in Pakistan, Mr. Wahab believes that a child who memorizes the Qur’an will bring blessings to the family, including the promise of taking 10 others to heaven in the afterlife.

Despite concerns about extremism, school principals say they are being unfairly blamed for militancy. “There are a lot of people who go to liberal schools and become extremists,” said Qari Shahid Gul, a teacher at a religious school in Karachi.

He cited Saad Aziz, a graduate of a prestigious business school, who was sentenced to death after confessing to involvement in several terrorist activities, including the terrorist attack. 45 members of the Ismaili sect were killed From Shiite Islam.

“Terrorism must be curbed, but making religious schools a scapegoat is not the solution,” Mr. Gul said.