Author: Kanchan Gupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: July 31, 2005
General Pervez Musharraf may have
ordered all foreign students of madarsas to leave Pakistan following the
London and Sharm-el Sheikh bombings but, ironically, the Government of
India continues to ignore a reality that Pakistan has finally come to accept
- that many of these theological schools of Islamic learning are nurseries
that breed Islamic extremism.
This, despite reams of documentary
evidence that Indian madarsas, too, have been preaching exclusivism and
fundamentalism.
Foreign students from countries
witnessing a spurt in Islamist extremism, including Bangladesh and Sudan,
are being routinely admitted for theological studies in leading Islamic
studies centres like Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband and Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow.
The official website of Dar-ul-Uloom
Deoband, for instance, offers admission-related information to foreign
students. Aspirants from Bangladesh are advised to "submit the testimonies
of Maulana Qari Abdul Khaliq, Jamia Hussainiya, Arzabad, Mirpur, Dhaka
and Maulana Hafiz Abdul Karim, Chowki Deghi, Silhat, Bangladesh". In effect,
the choice is entirely that of the Bangladeshi maulanas, and not Indian
authorities, as to which Bangladeshi student should enrol at this seminary.
While there is no official ban on
foreign students studying in Islamic seminaries in India, consular officers
in Indian missions across the world are extra cautious while issuing student
visas to such aspirants. Generally, consular officers discourage foreigners
seeking a student visa to study in an Islamic seminary in India.
However, often they have to issue
a student visa under pressure from Union Ministers, State Ministers and
Members of Parliament who wave "no objection certificates" issued by the
theological schools. These NOCs, in some cases, have been found to clash
with the findings of consular officers who are drawn from the Cabinet Secretariat,
euphemism for Research and Analysis Wing.
Similarly, the Union and State Governments
exercise little or no care in monitoring the funding of madarsas and larger
Islamic seminaries or the foreign travel of the ulema and the madaris.
Nor are visits to seminaries by foreign clerics monitored. Clerics, posing
as qaaris, from Saudi Arabia, Gulf countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh and
Nepal routinely visit seminaries in India.
The ISI has made ample use of these
visits and funding routed through third countries and sham charities to
set up an elaborate network of "friendly" seminaries in Bihar, West Bengal,
Uttar Pradesh and Assam. The ISI has penetrated deep into Kerala by targeting
seminaries in Malappuram.
An Intelligence report says that
"the ISI has staffed mosques and madarsas in these States with its agents
disguised as mullahs." The report refers to the construction of 450 new
madarsas and mosques along Nepal's border with UP, 675 madarsas and mosques
in Bihar, nearly 800 of them in Rajasthan and Gujarat along the Pakistan
border, and 50 in West Bengal along the State's border with Bangladesh
in the past couple of years.
According to another Intelligence
report, Maulana Abdul Rauf Rahmani of Nepal controls a large number of
madarsas in UP and Bihar. Rauf is believed to be an active member of the
Mecca-based Rabita-al-Alam-ul-Islami, a Wahabi organisation that propagates
virulent Islamism.
The input suggests that some madarsas
in UP receive funds routed through the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah.
Funds from "Arab charities", many of which have been black-listed across
the world, continue to flow into madarsas in Bihar along the India-Nepal
border. In Bihar's Kishanganj district, swamped by illegal Bangladeshi
immigrants, madarsas receive funds from Saudi and Gulf-based charities.
With funds aplenty, madarsas continue to mushroom at an average rate of
20 seminaries being set up each year.
Intelligence reports also indicate
that the Pir Pagaro seminary in Pakistan wields considerable influence
on madarsas in Rajasthan and Gujarat which receive funds routed through
charities, some of which exist only on paper, in Arab countries. As many
as 800 new seminaries have come up in these two States bordering Pakistan.
None of these details are unknown
to the Union Government. But irrespective of the ruling alliance of the
day, there continues to be great reluctance to strike at the root cause
of Islamist extremism: Islamic theological seminaries.
