Religious Policing In The Name Of Learning of the Quran in Pakistan: Pervez Hoodbhoy Predicts Saudi-Style Militant Mutawwa Policing In the Country

A New Era of Religious Policing Has Begun With the Single National Curriculum Programme in Pakistan Main Points: 1. Children are made to learn and memorise the Quran in the class. 2. Children need to carry the Quran in their school bags. 3. Principals and teachers are being pressurized to implement the programme. ----- By New Age Islam Staff Writer 7 December 2021 In Pakistan, religion has been a ploy to cover the inefficacy of illegitimacy of political power. Religion provides them the easiest way to find support for their inefficient governance. This happened during the dictatorship of Gen. Ziaul Haque and now during the tenure of Prime Minister Imran Khan. According to an article written by Pakistani nuclear scientist and a frequent commentator on social issues Pervez Hoodbhoy in Dawn, the Pakistan government is heading towards Islamisation of the national school system. Reading and learning of the Quran by heart has been mandatory under the new Single National Curriculum. Under this system schools students across the country, including minor girls and boys of primary classes are required to learn the Quran and have to bring copies of Quran for that purpose to school daily. Though the purpose of the new programme under SNC is to bring uniformity in the education system across the country, the focus is only on the learning of the Quran in schools. Principals and teachers of schools are being responsible for any laxity on their part. In Pakistan, the madrasa education system takes care of the Islamic education including teaching of the Quran. And there are millions of madrasas in the country. Still, the government of Paksitan has introduced this system and has made learning of the Quran in schools mandatory and that too teachers and Principals are being penalized for any negligence in this regard. In Pakistan, cases of blasphemy are slapped against those who desecrate the Quran or in any way. Some years ago, a Hafiz-e-Quran was lynched and burnt by an angry mob for accidently dropping the Quran in fire at home. A lady called Darakhshan was lynched and her dead body was burnt in Kabul by an unruly mob a few years ago for allegedly the book of talisman which contained verses of the Quran. Since the children will carry the Quran in their school bags carrying text books, they will not be able to show care to the Quran as they will keep the bags with them. It will be carried by them like other text books. Children will sometimes drop the bags on the floor accidentally or not finding appropriate place to keep the bags, they will put the bags on the floor. Sometimes, books bulge out of the bags and fall on the floor. Why this was done in a hurry does not find any explanation. It is obvious that to distract the attention of the people from the failure of his government, Imran Khan has implemented this system so that the general Muslims will forget the drawbacks of his governance. Another reason may be the rise of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan with which the government has entered into an agreement of which the terms have not been divulged. This programme will also lead to cases of blasphemy against teachers and principals of schools and also against non-Muslim students of schools. In Pakistan, blasphemy cases are filed against those who do not conform to the ideology of the opposite sect or criticize the behaviour and beliefs of the other sects. That Principals and teachers of schools will fall victim of this programme cannot be denied. This programme will instil fear of punishment for not learning the Quran among the innocent children. Carrying and keeping it with care will be a psychological burden for them and they will be deprived of the joy of going to school and of learning. Religion or religious scriptures should not be made the cause of fear among the children. But unfortunately, the Imran Khan government has made it so. This programme will have far reaching social ramifications if not withdrawn. ----- The Mutawwa Are Coming By Pervez Hoodbhoy December 4th, 2021 ‘MUTAWWA’ is Arabic for the once-feared Saudi religious police. Tasked to implement behavioural standards set by oil-fuelled Wahhabism, its wings have been clipped by the ongoing liberalisation sweeping the Middle East. But, under Imran Khan, Pakistan is flying elsewhere. To implement the government’s new Single National Curriculum (SNC), strict religious policing of public and private schools has begun. A Pakistani version of the Mutawwa is emerging. Marked as ‘Court Case — Most Important’, in a letter dated Nov 10, 2021, the School Education Department of the Punjab Government issued a directive that, as per orders received from the Lahore High Court, all schools in the province must be rigorously checked for Quranic reading/nazra skills. Each school will be jointly inspected by the head of the district education authority and a district & sessions judge. Cellphone numbers of school principals and teachers, together with a list of several hundred schools targeted for inspection, have been provided. Reading the Quran under a maulvi’s supervision has been a normal, age-old practice in every Muslim household — including that of the writer. But dispatching law-enforcers to enforce a tradition is new and bizarre. Preliminary reports suggest province-wide confusion and chaos, and a state of fear among children, teachers, and school principals. Magistrates accompanied by rifle-bearing policemen are pouncing upon schools, interrogating seven- to 12-year-old children. Their teachers are ordered out of the classroom or asked to stand silently in the corner. In some cases, school principals have been told to present themselves in person before authorities located in various parts of the province. Punishments are being handed out. Last week, a sessions judge in Nankana Sahib recommended disciplinary action against three school principals. They were accused of paying insufficient attention to Quran teaching as a separate subject, a requirement of the SNC. Included in the charge sheet is that their schools had “students who had Paras of the Holy Quran and were keeping them in their school bags which is gross negligence”. This needs explanation. As the reader may know, no copy of the Quran can be kept together with ordinary books. Visiting magistrates accuse children of bringing Quran copies from home inside their backpacks together with their textbooks. But what else can the kids do? Carry two backpacks? Rudimentary schools, such as they exist in villages or poor urban areas, have barely enough sitting room and no storage space. Cupboards, if any, are few while those with locks are still fewer. Magistrates have also noted that backpacks are thrown around or placed on the floor. According to a school principal in his school at least four accidental drops of the holy book have occurred in a sixth grade class. While these caused a stir subsequent developments could not be known. The severity of punishments — which could possibly include those for blasphemy — means that such incidents are generally hushed up unless they are to be wilfully used against rivals. These are not the only matters that school principals and teachers are worried about. Traditional respect requires that none can turn his/her back to the Quran. What is one to do in a classroom packed with kids? As for wuzu: a majority of schools have no proper toilets or clean water but, as is well known, none may touch the Quran without being properly cleansed. Using a disguised identity, a female teacher wrote that proper cleansing is particularly problematic for female schools — and even more for mixed schools. As per normal requirement no girl, or teacher, may touch the holy book while menstruating. But the topic is so tabooed that none dare mention it in front of students or higher ups. Could this — rather than laziness — be why some female Quran schoolteachers were unable to explain to the inspection teams their absence from class? Paradoxically, the squads going from school to school across Punjab are meant to check Quran-teaching standards but their own members are deficient in an important way. SNC prescribes Quran teaching with proper Tajweed (pronunciation) of Arabic words. However, this is beyond the capacity of most Quran schoolteachers in the area because they are rarely able to pronounce the letters ‘Qaf’ and ‘A’in’ as in Arabic. Exceptions are madrasa graduates who spend their lives honing the skill of accurate recitation. Thus, if the Tajweed requirement is to be fulfilled, logically such persons will have to be inducted as regular teachers. This runs counter to emphatic denials made by the education minister, Shafqat Mahmood, who claims that the existing school system is not being madrasa-ised. What drove the Lahore High Court to issue its orders so speedily? What was the urgency given a thousand other pending complaints concerning property disputes, theft, fraud, child abuse, rape, and murder? The answer is before us: ideologues in government have seized the reins of power. As in Afghanistan, the population is now at their mercy. It was not supposed to be this way. Recall that Imran Khan’s SNC was initially advertised as means towards equal opportunities for the rich and poor, regular schools and madrasas. And — this is the most unbelievable part — also about raising the quality of education. So, are we about to see magistrates with armed guards inspecting school laboratories and frequency of science practicals? Checking if libraries are adequately stocked or that toilets are in working condition? Will these squads tell 25 million out-of-school children where to find schools and teachers? Hell is likely to freeze over before that happens. The fortunate among us will recall school days as being carefree and filled with joy, laughter, and play. This is how it is in much of the world, and this is what every child should have. Afghanistan’s children are not so fortunate and now the children of Naya Pakistan are beset with similar misfortune. Grim-faced magistrates swooping down upon schools, destroying the authority of teachers and school principals, and putting terror into the hearts of all is a disgrace to the notion of education. It may not end here. How we dress, speak, and think is going to be increasingly policed. Imran Khan’s Pakistan is racing down the path to Talibanisation. ---- Pervez Hoodbhoy is an Islamabad-based physicist and writer. Source: The Dawn.com URL: https://www.newageislam.com/the-war-islam/religious-policing-quran-mutawwa-pakistan/d/125911 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism