海角大神

Anwarul Haq, a frail, bespectacled cleric, sits before a class of attentive students in Darul Uloom Haqqania,聽one of Pakistan鈥檚 many madrassas, or Islamic seminaries. His class of 1,400 students is the most聽senior聽of 4,000 enrollees at Darul Uloom, an hour's聽drive聽from Peshawar.

The students follow a聽500-year-old聽curriculum聽adopted across South Asia.聽The oversized book聽used in Mr. Haq's聽class,聽a collection of聽ahadith,聽or sayings attributed to the prophet Muhammad,聽is centuries old and written in Arabic. Commentary written in Urdu in present-day India fills the margins.聽

鈥淭his country was built on Islam, the idea of following God's teachings. Here we are聽learning聽how to do that,鈥� says Haq.

What students learn, and don鈥檛 learn, in thousands of such private seminaries is a matter of concern for Pakistan鈥檚 government. Under a national security policy unveiled last month,聽Pakistan聽aims to bring madrassas under聽tighter聽state control,聽update their curricula to聽tone down extremist views, and聽introduce subjects like mathematics聽and聽science. The goal is to turn out graduates capable of getting decent jobs who won鈥檛 be tempted to join the Taliban or other militant groups.

鈥淕raduates stand in between two worlds,鈥� says Nafisa Shah, a聽lawmaker from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League.聽When they聽don't get jobs, she says, 鈥渢hey become vulnerable聽[to recruitment by militants].鈥澛�

Pakistan currently has a tenuous ceasefire with homegrown Taliban militants and has released scores of suspected militants and accomplices in confidence-building measures. Still, terrorist attacks have continued by splinter groups the Taliban claim not to control. On Apr. 9, 21 people were killed in a blast at a fruit market in Islamabad.

Advanced degrees

Fears that Pakistan鈥檚 madrassas are breeding grounds for extremism are nothing new. After 9/11, the US government funded a $100 million madrassa reform program that met widespread hostility and failed to make much headway.聽聽聽

Clerics have scoffed at the government鈥檚 new security policy and point out that they鈥檝e already instituted the聽kind聽of reforms the government advocates. Darul Uloom offers advanced specializations in Islamic law that Pakistan鈥檚 universities accept as Master's degrees, and runs computer labs for students.

Other madrassas have also upgraded their curriculum so that students, who spend much of their time memorizing the Quran, get a broader secular education. Most pupils are from poor backgrounds: madrassas offer free education, housing, and food.

Moreover, experts say the聽threat of militancy聽comes mostly from what students learn in their spare time, especially聽in hundreds of聽underground聽madrassas聽that are beyond the reach of聽both the聽clerics and the state.聽

鈥淢ost policy makers have never even visited a madrassa,鈥� says Qibla Ayaz,聽the dean of Islamic and Oriental Studies at Peshawar University,聽where half the doctoral candidates are graduates of madrassas.聽By聽including madrassas in the national聽security policy,聽he says聽it鈥檚 clear聽the government 鈥渃onsiders聽them聽a law and order issue, a security problem, not an educational problem.鈥�

Taliban admirers

Still, it can be tough to untangle these challenges. At Darul Uloom, it鈥檚 not hard to find admirers of the Taliban and its intolerant brand of Islam. In the 1990s, hundreds聽of students聽joined its ranks,聽and some rose to become senior commanders.

The school's faculty, including Haq, still enjoy enough respect among the Taliban that they were nominated by the group's leaders to represent them in the current peace talks.

Haq is聽the vice president of an聽independent聽body of clerics聽overseeing聽1.6 million students enrolled in聽Pakistan's roughly 18,000 madrassas. He's highly critical of government meddling in the sector, and in particular of the US-funded reform program that ran between 2002 and 2008. Clerics that usually divided along sectarian lines聽formed聽an alliance to resist the US-backed reforms and only agreed finally to hand over a list of their madrassas.聽

鈥淓very government for the last forty years has tried these reforms, we are used to dealing with them,鈥� says Haq. 鈥淭hey are the servants聽of the US, of infidel governments. They say they want to help, but they really want to erase Islam, and they know madrassas聽are the final obstacle.鈥�

In Darul Uloom鈥檚 computer lab, nearly 350 students use dozens of聽old desktop computers聽for classes on聽how to聽type, or聽surf聽the聽web.聽By contrast, only 39 percent of government schools in Pakistan聽have electricity. Three million children never attend a single class, according to an official 2011 survey. Critics say the focus on regulating madrassas ignores the broader failure of Pakistan's leaders to invest in primary education.聽

Computer literacy

The school's computer literacy聽course was started聽nearly聽15 years ago in response to demands by students. Most students also sign up for extra classes in science or mathematics that use the same curriculum taught in government schools, says Haq.

Most graduates from Darul Uloom work as clerics, but hundreds have had successful secular careers. Muneer Alam is among them: he graduated聽in 2003聽with an advanced degree in Islamic law, then went to medical school and became an endocrinologist. He now聽runs a clinic outside Rawalpindi.聽鈥淧eople see Islamic education as an obstacle,聽but it isn't,鈥澛爃e says.

Ammar聽Khan聽Nasir,聽an expert on聽modernizing聽Islamic studies聽who teaches at Al-Sharia Academy, a university in Gujranwala,聽says madrassa curricula need to be聽updated so students聽understand the modern nation-state. But he warns this alone isn鈥檛 enough to staunch the recruitment of militants in war-torn tribal areas near the Afghanistan border.

鈥淭hey study the same curriculum that was in place 500 years ago," he says. What's changed, he adds, is what they hear in their spare time,聽a vitriolic narrative that pits the West and the Pakistani state against Islam.聽[Editor's note:聽The original version misidentified Mr. Nasir's university and wrongly attributed a direct quote to him.]

Fakhar Kakakhel, a journalist who reports from the tribal areas, says around a hundred madrassas聽used聽to聽supply militants with child suicide bombers.聽Set up to help children memorize Islamic texts, these seminaries聽operated聽on a shoestring budget and聽were聽not registered with any clerical oversight body.聽[Editor's note:聽The original version implied that all the madrassas are still active.]

After a decade of war though,聽Kakahel says聽parents are starting to pull children out. 鈥淭hey say we sent our kids to learn the Quran,聽not聽become suicide bombers.鈥�