By Sultan Shahin, Founder-Editor, New
Age Islam
1 Mar 2019
“An attack on the sovereignty of madrasas”
is how the All India Muslim Personal Law Board secretary described the
suggestion to bring the Muslim religious schools under the Right to Education
(RTE) act. Madrasas’ autonomy and independence guaranteed under Articles 29 and
30 of the Constitution will be threatened, Khalid Saifullah Rahmani said
recently.
But, the question is what have Indian
madrasas, where more than seven million children go for basic education, made
of their autonomy? Even if one concedes that it is okay for them to teach just Islamiyaat,
they must be asked what brand of Islam are they teaching these impressionable
children?
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The concern was also flagged by the
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights when last year it proposed
bringing madrasas under the RTE to ensure that the children didn’t miss out on
their right to education. Children going to madrasas were “as good as
out-of-school kids”, the panel said.
I will give just one example and ask
madrasa authorities if they are in right minds to be imparting such incendiary
ideas to our children and that too in the 21st century. That these teachings
cannot be directly linked to any violence yet is beside the point – a
ghettoised mind is more toxic than a ghetto. Something that hasn’t happened yet
can happen tomorrow.
There is a book called Islami
Akhlaq-wo-Aadaab (Islamic behaviour and good manners) for teenage students
and part of the course for Aalimiyat (an equivalent of Class 12). Written by
Maulana Amjad Ali Azmi Rizvi, this is actually a simplified and summarised
version of the 16th volume of Bahar-e-Shariyat, a book of Islamic
jurisprudence that is a required study for every Aalim, a scholar
trained in Islamic law.
The book claims to seek reforms in the
Muslim society. In its chapter on an Islamic dictum Amr bil Maroof wa Nahi
anil Munkar (Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil), it says:
“In attacking
mushrikeen (polytheists, usually and wrongly translated as idolaters) all by
oneself, there is a possibility that one will be killed but if there is a
greater possibility that one will kill their man or injure or defeat them,
there is no harm in attacking alone; but if there is a greater possibility that
they will not be harmed or defeated, then one should not attack. If there is a
possibility that when one stops fasiq (depraved) Muslims from committing sins
one would get killed and will not be able to harm the debauched Muslims, still
it is best to stop them from sinning, (although not stopping them is also
permitted, (Fatawa Alamgiri), because getting killed in this venture does not
go in vain. It may not appear to be fruitful at this time but in future it will
bring good results (Page 268).”
[I
have tried to be as close to the Urdu text as possible in this translation,
even at the cost of some clarity.]
This is so utterly senseless that anyone
reading this might wonder if I am quoting it out of context. There isn’t any
context. This is the last paragraph of the chapter and the one before it gives
advice on reporting a theft.
The religious ruling is given as if Muslims
regularly need advice on whether, and under what circumstances, it is worth
risking life while trying to kill a mushrik or stopping a “wicked Muslim” from
committing a sin. This would make sense if one were to assume that Muslims risk
their lives in these pursuits, as routinely as, say, they go out to buy
vegetables.
Fortunately, that is not the case. But,
that is no argument for complacency. Islamic theology, as it is taught
unabashedly and senselessly, is full of violence, most of it against Muslims
who dare to think a new thought.
Fresh thinking was banned in the 9th
Century CE. There are thousand and one grounds for declaring Muslims kafir
(infidel) or murtad (heretic, apostate) and sentence them to death. This
sentence can be carried out by any Muslim in the absence of an Islamic court.
As for non-Muslims, including those whom
Quran considers Ahl-e-Kitab (People of the Book) and deserving the most
intimate relations with Muslims, theology considers them permanent denizens of
hell. No wonder most religious Muslims conversant with their theology feel
nothing but contempt for non-Muslims and can have nothing but reverence for
those who are engaged in despatching them to their permanent abode.
A distinction should, however, be made
between Islam and Islamic Sharia (laws) or Islam and Islamic Fiqh
(jurisprudence) or Islam and its understanding or Kalam (theology). If Muslims
want to live honourably in today’s closely connected world, they have to work
towards evolving a new jurisprudence and theology of peace and pluralism and
gender justice to replace the theological texts that encourage violence, supremacism,
xenophobia, intolerance and gender injustice.
At the very least and as an urgent measure,
I would request madrasa authorities to weed out from textbooks passages like
the one above that beget murderous violence as well as irrelevancies like how
to treat female prisoners of war and concubines, etc.
Related:
Our ulema cannot be unaware that Muslim
youth in large numbers are joining jihadist groups around the world today. We
should have been deeply worried when the first time a Sunni Muslim went to a
Shia mosque in Pakistan, blew himself up to kill fellow namazis, considering
them apostate, and thinking he was doing a pious act for which he will be
rewarded by God with a place in heaven. This was several years ago. Today, we
have become a society which can produce a whole army of suicide bombers
practically anywhere in the world. The blame lies squarely with the kind of
education imparted in our madrasas.
RTE will ensure a modern curriculum so that
children are more attuned to the world around them. They will study what
students in other schools are being taught and will not feel left out once they
leave madrasas. A modern education will equip them to a world where technology
is shaping lives and changing it at a breathtaking pace.
Madrasa education is a serious violation of
the human rights of Muslim children. Our children and the world at large
deserve better. We simply cannot live in the 21st Century with a 7th-Century
mindset.
Sultan Shahin is the founder-editor of a
Delhi-based progressive Islamic website NewAgeIslam.com
Note: This article first appeared in the
print edition of FirstPost weekly, New Delhi
Source:
firstpost.com/india/time-madrassas-give-children-their-right-to-education-6180351.html
10:59 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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