Islamic Religious Schools, Madrasas

The Arabic word madrasa (plural: madaris) generally has two meanings: (1) in its more common literal and colloquial usage, it simply means “school”; (2) in its secondary meaning, a madrasa is an educational institution offering instruction in Islamic subjects including, but not limited to, the Quran, the sayings (hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), jurisprudence (fiqh), and law.

Recently, “madrasa” has been used as a catchall by many Western observers to denote any school primary, secondary, or advanced that promotes an Islamic-based curriculum. In many countries, including Egypt and Lebanon, madrasa refers to any educational institution (state-sponsored, private, secular, or religious). In Pakistan and Bangladesh, madrasa commonly refers to Islamic religious schools.

As an institution of learning, the madrasa is centuries old. One of the first established madrasas, called the Nizamiyah, was built in Baghdad during the eleventh century A.D. Offering food, lodging, and a free education, madrasas spread rapidly throughout the Muslim world, and although their curricula varied from place to place, it was always religious in character because these schools ultimately were intended to prepare future Islamic religious scholars (ulama) for their work. In emphasizing classical traditions in Arabic linguistics, teachers lectured and students learned through rote memorization. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in the era of Western colonial rule, secular institutions came to supersede religious schools in importance throughout the Islamic world. However, madrasas were revitalized in the 1970s with the rising interest in religious studies and Islamist politics in countries such as Iran and Pakistan.

In the 1980s, madrasas in Afghanistan and Pakistan were allegedly boosted by an increase in financial support from the United States, European governments, Saudi Arabia, and other Persian Gulf states all of whom reportedly viewed these schools as recruiting grounds for anti-Soviet mujahedin fighters. In the early 1990s, the Taliban movement was formed by Afghan Islamic clerics and students (talib means “student” in Arabic), many of whom were former mujahedin who had studied and trained in madrasas and who advocated a strict form of Islam similar to the Wahhabism practiced in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.


Beyond instruction in basic religious tenets, some argue that after the ouster of Soviet forces from Afghanistan, a small group of radicalized madrasas, specifically located near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, promote a militant form of Islam and teach their Muslim students to fight nonbelievers and stand against what they see as the moral depravity of the West. To eliminate such doubts Pakistani authorities renewed plans to require all madrasas to register with the government and provide an account of their financing sources. The government had previously offered incentives to madrasas that agreed to comply with registration procedures, including better training, salaries, and supplies. As of January 2007, over 12,000 of Pakistan’s estimated 13,000 madrasas had registered with authorities.

In the recent years and in more impoverished nations, the rising costs and shortages of public educational institutions have encouraged parents to send their children to madrasas. Although some madrasas teach secular subjects, in general madrasas offer a religious-based curriculum, focusing on the Quran and Islamic texts. Madrasas, in most Muslim countries today, exist as part of a broader educational infrastructure. The private educational sector provides what is considered to be a quality Western-style education for those students who can afford high tuition costs.

Currently, the popularity of madrasas is rising in various parts of Southeast Asia. For example in Indonesia, home to the largest number of Muslims in the world, almost 20%-25% of primary and secondary school children attend Islamic religious schools. Indonesian pesantrens have been noted for teaching a moderate form of Islam, one that encompasses Islamic mysticism or Sufism.

U.S and Britain are the most concerned countries regarding the functioning of the madaris in Pakistan, it is recommended that they must understand the functioning and responsibilities of these madaris and stop the practice of labeling them as breeding grounds of extremism and terrorism. These perceptions are absolutely wrong and an attempt to distort the image of madaris.