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Two
students show a notice issued by Pakistan's government to leave the country.
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ISLAMABAD, January 1, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – An
umbrella body representing religious schools (madrassahs) in Pakistan has vowed to resist a government's decision to expel foreign students
attending religious classes in the country.
"We
reject the decision by (President Pervez) Musharraf to expel foreign
students," Maulana Abdul Rahman of the Ittehad Tanzimat Madaris
Deeniya, the Alliance of Organizations of Religious Schools, told
Al-Jazeera news television on Sunday, January 1.
Around
1,000 religious party leaders and heads and representatives of
madrassahs from across the country attended a country-wide convention
Sunday to discuss Musharraf's decision to expel foreign students by
the end of 2005.
"We
will also stage nationwide protests to pressure Musharraf to reverse
his decision which violates human rights conventions," Abdul
Rahman stressed.
Musharraf
had ordered foreign students studying in Pakistani madrassahs to leave
the country by December 31, following the July 7 terrorist attacks in London.
Around
700 foreign students, out of a total of 1,400, have since left the
country, but hundreds remain, according to Pakistani officials.
The
number of foreign students attending madrassahs has already fallen
sharply since the government imposed tougher visa restrictions after
the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
There
are around 12,000 madrassahs in Pakistan, often offering free religious education and board for more than one
million Pakistani children, especially in areas neglected by state
education services.
"No
Expulsion"
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Students
recite the Qur'an at a religious school in Peshawar. (Reuters)
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Many
foreign students have refused to obey the government order to leave
the country by December 31.
"I
don't want to leave Pakistan. I came to learn Qur'an as I have not yet completed my religious
education," a nine-year-old Eritrean student told the Doha-based
broadcaster.
On
Saturday, December 31, some 21 foreign students were arrested in Islamabad
and Rawalpindi.
Most
of them are from Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria
and Sri Lanka, sources told Daily Times.
Another
94 students were also warned to leave the country as soon as possible.
Softening
its position, the Pakistani government said Friday, December 30,
foreign students should leave "as soon as possible" instead
of by December 31.
"As
far as we are concerned, we have no deadline, or any plan to expel
them," Amanullah Haqqani, religious affairs minister in the
conservative North West Frontier Province, told Reuters on Saturday.
A
majority of the foreign students, most of them Afghans, are studying
in NWFP.
"Secondly,
we want the federal government to review its decision as it is a
matter of pride for Pakistan to impart religious education to foreign students."
Hiccups
Analysts
said the government's decision to soften its stance on expelling
foreign students was due to hiccups in implementation.
"The
government had taken the decision under international pressure, and
all this seems to be disorganized and hurriedly done," Mutahir
Ahmad, assistant professor of International Relations at the
University
of Karachi, told Reuters.
"There
has been wide opposition to the government's decision, especially in
NWFP. Plus, the public sentiment is not the same as it was in 2001,
after the 9/11 events," he added.
Pakistan
saw a spectacular rise in the number of madrassahs in the 1980s, when
the schools, backed by funding from the West and Arab countries,
became recruiting grounds for volunteers fighting Soviet occupation
forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
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