Madrassa Education and Fundamentalism in Pakistan

Abstract

The western media has linked most of the madrassas in Pakistan with violence
and terrorism. It is also considered by some people as a net of social security
for underprivileged people of the society who are ignored by the state’s social
services. The present paper looks at the Madrassa education in Pakistan to
find out whether it has the ability in social, economic and political
development of the country and what kinds of reforms are required in this
direction. Moreover, the existing madrassas in Pakistan are sometimes
considered to be the factories, producing religious extremism. But the basic
aim behind the emergence of madrassas is to seek basic Islamic knowledge is
not known. Madrassa teachers are satisfied with the madrassa curriculum as
far as its basic goals and purposes is concerned. Madrassa education system
does not prepare graduates to compete in present day economic market. The
data revealed that madrassa education system of Pakistan was peace loving
and unjustly blamed for extremism. Therefore the main objective of the study
is to understand the changing pattern of madrassa and the role of the
Pakistani government to modernize it.