Yes, but almost all of them in Pakistan are guilty of complacency and fueling the production of radicals from what are purportedly 'charitable organizations' dabbling in the trade of faith.
Madrassas are only part of the problem. The real problem is prevalent in all types of Islamic organizations operating in Pakistan.
Case in point: the esteemed Council of Islamic Ideology whose only service in the performance of its constitutional mandate over the past 10 years has only comprised of lowering the female age for marriage and allowing the Muslim male to marry a second spouse without the permission of his first (inter alia other completely useless rulings.). Not once have they convened to consider the radical undertone which the Islamic ideology has been taking on.
Why?
1. The Islamic ideology itself is undergoing radical changes in the country of its origin and also those majority Islamic countries which are Arab. Without Arab input or support an Islamic Renaissance is not possible. The Pakistani mullahs are mere fronts without any backbone.
2. Street power. Diluting the Islamic faith with modern education weakens the grip which a mullah enjoys over his masses.
3. Ineptitude. Having not had a formal education or modern exposure, the mullah himself is incapable of charting a coherent path to the future for an ideology which is essentially his responsibility.
4. Affinity for and unflinching devotion to the Arabs. Pakistanis acquire the inherently flawed trait of declaring unconditional allegiance to the Arab world for the sole reason that we have imported their faith. Having declared our complete resolve to support their every cause, we do so at the unfortunate cost of our own interests. The Pakistani mullah will fan the flames of terror only because the Arabs are doing it too, and to his mind there will be nothing wrong with that.
5. All the reasons in the article above.
Furthermore a ready-supply of fresh, bright, inquisitive, innocent young minds to the madrassah system ensures that the cycle of radical teachings continues unabated. Poor economic and human development and limited finances hinder parents from enrolling their children into private/public sector schools where their minds would be nurtured and not completely cast in ignorance by the local mullah running a madrassah on alms.
By all means meaningful Islamic education should be imparted to a child whose parents deem it for him. But that education should be Islamic and not radical or extreme with political
The way I see it, a meaningful reform of the madrassa system may be years in the coming. What is critical is the prevention of new entrants into the system.
Nailed it.
