Khanate
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I've been looking into Diyanet and gathering my thoughts on this matter.
I have a few points:
- Opposing views:
- Turkiye: Turkish government's view on religion is posted on Diyanet website, "religious services has always been considered as a public service." If a government takes this line of thought, its only natural that it would extend authority over mosques and sermons. And from what I've read this policy is a continuation of Ottoman tradition so there is consensus on it in Turkish society.
- Pakistan: If you visit the Ministry of Religions Affairs (MoRA) website, it only speaks of Hajj prices and safety issues. MoRA has few tools to do what Diyanet does. The primary tool is Madrassah Education Board and the Dini Madaris Model. Now this is not an election issue so you are not going to win votes by reforming religious seminaries. Ergo, reforms are slow. Naturally the focus is on economic/infrastructure development.
- Public Education: This is GoP's preferred way of exerting influence. To create uniformity, a standard set of Islamic education is imparted in schools in the form Islamiyat / Islamic studies. From what I've heard, a move towards comparative religions study is being made to allow broader context, its something Turkey does.
To begin with, there is provincial politics where Federal control is not welcomed so its likely each province will implement its own standards which is already happening in my province Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KPK). GoP's offer is simple: reject foreign funding, take state funding, and reform Madrassah education by teaching the standard curriculum, like English, Maths, Urdu etc. and include some comparative religions study. MoRA has also stopped the publication of religious literature from seminaries. One aspect that has been criticised is enforcement. If a Madrassah is unregistered and it hasn't provided bank statements then it must be banned however you need law enforcement to shut it down. Since 2015, this is happening more increasingly under the National Action Plan (NAP). NAP recommended Madrassah reforms and the Army is really pushing for the implementation of NAP.
Already you can see the religious affairs system in Pakistan diverges from Turkiye. I do see useful stuff in Diyanet which can be implemented down the line but, again, these are not election issues so reforms will be slow.
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