KOLKATA, India, April 4, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Education Minister in India's state of West Bengal Kanti Biswas said Tuesday, April 4, that Islamic religious schools (madrasahs) are promoting tolerance and communal harmony among different faiths in the multi-religious country.

"People find it difficult to believe, but our madrasahs ... are reflecting modern aspirations and expectations of the community irrespective of religion," he told Reuters.

"We had carefully planned the madrasahs reforms to make young minds understand the values of religious tolerance and it is finally paying off."

Officials began reviewing Islamic schools in 1977, introducing history and social sciences beside the study of the Noble Qur'an.

Geography, science and computing were also introduced into madrasahs after 2002. There are also plans for foreign languages soon.

The reforms have been credited with bringing about a change in the social outlook of the state's various faiths, and have attracted both teachers and students from other religions to the madrasahs.

Now, nearly 25 percent of the 400,000 students who attend madrasahs, and 15 percent of their 10,000 teachers are non-Muslims.

Hindus make up the majority of the 80 million population in West Bengal but a quarter of the populace is Muslims.

Julita Oraon, a 14-year-old devout Christian, is one of the tens of thousands of Hindu and Christian students attending madrasahs.

"I like the subject very much and the fact that I am a Christian has never been a problem with my Muslim friends," she said.

Julita, who never misses Sunday mass, is posting higher marks in Arabic tests than her Muslim classmates at the Badaitari Ujiria Madrasah in Jalpaiguri district, about 500 km (300 miles) north of the state capital Kolkata.

Tapas Layek, the Hindu headmaster of a madrasah in south Kolkata, has also several co-religionists as colleagues.

"We are loved and respected by our Muslim students who are also friendly with their Hindu classmates," he said.

Renowned Bengali filmmaker Mrinal Sen, a former jury member at the Cannes festival, said the state's experiment should be copied across the country.

"I can't help but be amazed at the way some of these religious schools are working towards communal harmony," he said.

Prominent figures have praised madrasahs in the Indian state as a role model, helping to clear the old misconceptions about Indian Muslims.

"The perception of the respective communities about different culture and religion has helped residents of West Bengal to bridge the gulf of mistrust and come together," said Swapan Pramanik, a leading sociologist and vice-chancellor of Vidya Sagar University in Kolkata.

"This has been a significant development in madrasahs for the entire world to see."

He said madrasahs have caused to change the conservative outlook of both Muslims and Hindus to each others.

"The changes have rubbed off on parents and whole communities, who have been able to spread the message of harmony."

Ahmed Hasan Imran, the general secretary of the Muslim Council of Bengal, agreed.

"In the 1970s, the mistrust grew and Muslims were thought to be friends of Pakistan and mostly spies," he said.

"But that perception gradually changed with the reforms in the madrasahs as well as other education institutes."

Thousands died in communal violence that erupted after the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.

Violence also erupted in the 1960s and 1970s following the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims and Hindus from what was then East Pakistan and became Bangladesh.

The madrasahs' role has even been evident during communal tension over the past years.

In 1992, India was wracked by deadly communal riots after a Hindu mob destroyed a mosque in the northern holy city of Ayodhya.

But in Bengal students from madrasahs, both Muslims and Hindus, led processions denouncing the demolition.

In the aftermath of the Gujarat anti-Muslim riots a decade later, Bengal's Hindus, Christians and Muslims were quick to meet to ensure passions were cooled.