Pakistan's religious schools under fire

Students from a madrassah shout anti-government slogans at a rally in Lahore in July

(CNN) -- When the U.S.-led bombing campaign began in Afghanistan, thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets to protest. Among the demonstrators were students from Pakistan's many madrassahs, or religious schools.

Those schools are now facing government reforms aimed at modernizing a curriculum of historically narrow religious education and eliminating those elements linked to militant activity.

"In the minority, madrassahs where in the past [home to] these undesirable activities such as fanning sectarian hatred [and] militancy -- that needs to be checked and continuously checked," Minister for Religious Affairs, Owais Ahmed Ghani, says.

There are an estimated 10,000 madrassahs all over Pakistan offering free education to over a million children who have been overlooked by the government's failing school system.

Analysts say the schools themselves are not the problem but point to a legacy of, what they call, shortsighted policies by the international community.

"There's nothing intrinsic in the madrassah sector that promotes militancy," Najum Mushtaq from the International Crisis Group, says.

"Religious extremism, fundamentalism, it is a result of policies the United States and the West pursued to contain communism in the Muslim world."

U.S. backing

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Ash-har Quraishi looks at the often radical Islamic Madrassah schools of Pakistan and how the government hopes to reform them. Play video Officials in Karachi said they fear Pakistan's largest city is becoming a regrouping point for al Qaeda. CNN's Mike Chinoy reports. Play video Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf took a huge risk in siding with the U.S. and participating in the War on Terror against the Taliban. CNN's Christiane Amanpour reports. Play video   ANALYSIS Pakistan - a safe haven for al Qaeda?    IN-DEPTH Pakistan's challenge     CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition

The watershed in the history of madrassahs was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Backed by the U.S. and the Pakistani governments, a section of madrassahs became the staging ground for the mujahideen's new found jihad, or holy war.

"Somebody needed to lead that struggle. And in that vacuum the leadership was picked up by the mullah -- the religious scholars and leaders -- who led the freedom struggle and they were actively supported by the west," Ghani says.

One of those leaders was Maulana Sami-ul-Haq who heads one of the largest madrassahs in the country.

Today, he remains critical of the U.S. role in the Afghan jihad against the Soviets.

"The Americans didn't really care about the plight of the Muslims. But when they came forward and gave us support, we thought, if one enemy has come forward to defeat the other, why should we stop them?" the religious leader says.

"They called the soldiers mujahideen, they called them heroes. There were thousands like Osama bin Laden. And America was happy."

Paying the price

But over a decade after the defeat of the Soviets, Pakistan continues to pay the price for a residue of militancy left behind by Cold War policies.

"They were given books in which they learned math by counting dead bodies," the International Crisis Group's Mushtaq says.

"They learned their alphabets through images of jihad. that's what they printed on their minds and then you expect them to become civilized people overnight just because the soviet union has been defeated?"

"You'll have to acknowledge the fallout of your policies, and take responsibility for it."

It is a responsibility that has fallen solely on the shoulders of the Pakistani government, which is drafting a new madrassah ordinance, expected to be inducted within the next few months.

It calls for government registration of all religious schools, the introduction of subjects like math and science and checks into foreign funding and admission of foreign students.

Suspicion

A religious cleric teaches English at a madrassah in Peshawar

But attempts like these to reform the religious schools have failed in the past.

Amidst fear of secularization, madrassah school administrators remain suspicious of the government's hand in their business.

"The ordinance wants madrassahs to come under complete control of the government, that the teachers, the funding, the curriculum, everything should be decided by the government," Maulana says.

"As far as modernizing and changing the curriculum in the madrassahs, we do that on our own. We are not blind to the world around us. We have computers, we teach English."

Many critics insist the government's efforts to curb militant activity and modernize the madrassah system lack focus and sincerity and also reflect an unwillingness to face further backlash from the religious establishment.

Yet despite this, over a million children continue to attend the madrassahs that dot the landscape, blissfully unaware of the debate over their shape and existence.