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Students attend a class at a madrassah in Karachi. (Reuters) |
CAIRO — Pakistani religious schools (madrassahs) are bracing for new crackdowns following the alleged terror plot in Britain to blow up US-bound flights in mid-air.
"It is propaganda to believe that anyone comes to a madrassah to learn to be a terrorist," Muhammad Sarfraz Naimi, who runs the Jamia Naeemia madrassah in Lahore, told the Guardian on Monday, August 14.
"We had people from UK, Europe, America and they came here for education, which is a human right. Now they are being denied."
British authorities on Thursday, August 10, arrested 24 terror suspects on charges of plotting to blow up a number of US-bound flights.
British media said the suspects were mostly British-born men of Pakistani origin.
At least seven people were also arrested in Pakistan in connection with the alleged plot.
Pakistani authorities said one of the suspects, Rashid Rauf, was the plot's ringleader.
Rauf, a British national, was reported to have spent time in Lahore before his arrest. There have also been unconfirmed reports that at least five others have been arrested in the city since last Thursday.
Pakistan cracked down hard on its madrassahs following the London attacks in July last year after it emerged that one of the four bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, attended madrassah near Lahore.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had ordered foreign students studying in Pakistani madrassahs to leave the country by December 31, following the London attacks, which killed 56 people including home-grown British Muslims.
Preaching Peace
Naimi said madrassahs were preaching peace and educate students about Islam as a way of life.
"Islam teaches you peace. Why are Muslim people being jailed without having done anything," he asked.
More than 1,700 students are learning the Noble Qur'an, Islamic history, law and philosophy at the Jamia Naeemia madrassah.
It also offers courses in Windows software packages, math and English.
"My father wanted me to be an imam so I can work in a mosque," said 14-year-old Umar Ali, who attends the madrassah.
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.
Not Ours
Naimi says the problem lies inside Britain and America, not Pakistan, blaming the foreign policies of the two allies for fanning up extremism and consequently terrorism.
"It is Muslims born there and brought up there who are doing these attacks," he said, criticizing President Pervez Musharraf for cowing in to London and Washington.
Pakistani Ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram has said that it was the years spent in Britain that transformed 22-year-old Shehzad Tanweer into a suicide bomber.
He said Britain was now a "breeding ground for terrorists too" and has its own radical preachers and "home-grown suicide bombers".
The ambassador said that a particular concern was integrating Muslims into mainstream British life.
London has always rejected any link between its foreign policy and terrorism.
A Home Office's inquiry into the terrorist bombings, however, has conceded that the bombers were motivated by London's foreign policy, principally the decision to invade Iraq alongside the US.
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