{"id":3637,"date":"2014-05-15T05:50:33","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T05:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wp3\/?p=3637"},"modified":"2014-05-15T05:50:33","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T05:50:33","slug":"pakistan-univ-offers-madrassahs-affiliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunnionline.us\/english\/2014\/05\/15\/3637\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan Univ. Offers Madrassahs Affiliation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"images\/stories\/news3\/pakistanUnivp.jpg\" border=\"0\" style=\"float: right; margin: 5px;\" \/>A huge number of students at Pakistan madrassahs have been offered a golden chance to create a better future after a decision by a state-owned university offering its affiliation to the country\u2019s religious seminaries and bringing hundreds of thousands of students to mainstream education.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <!--more-->  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cWe are offering our affiliation to the madrassahs in all over the country with a view to bringing their students into the mainstream educational environment,\u201d Dr Zafar Iqbal, the vice chancellor of Federal Urdu University said while addressing the graduation ceremony of Jamiatul Rashdia, the country\u2019s one of the largest madrassahs in southern port city of Karachi on Monday.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Federal Urdu University Karachi is the first ever state-owned or private university that has offered its affiliation to the madrassahs that are often blamed by the western media as \u201cnurseries of militancy\u201d.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThose madrassahs, which get our affiliation, their students will be granted Bachelor of Arts (B.A) degrees by the univesity,\u201d Dr Iqbal said.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cNot only that, but those students who qualify, will be granted admissions to masters, and Phd classes as well,\u201d he maintaind.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Dr Iqbal said that in case of affiliation, the degree to be issued by his university, would be recognized equivalent to graduation by all the state-owned and private universities.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A similar decision was issued in the mid 1980s by Pakistan\u2019s former military president, Zia-ul-Haq, in mid 1980s, who declared the eight-year long madrassah course equivalent to graduation. However, the degrees are issued by the respective madrassah boards instead of any recognized university.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Around 13000 madrassahs out of 22,000 are operating in Punjab, the province of 90 million people.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Nearly 12,000 madrassahs are administered by Wifaq-ul-Madaris Pakistan, which represents the Dubendi school of thought.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The remaining 10,000 madrassahs are administered by Tanzeem-ul-Madaris Pakistan (Brelvi school of thought), Tanzeem-ul-Madaris (Shiite), Wifaq-ul-Madaris Al-Salafia (Ahl-e-Hadit), and Rabita-tul-Madaris Pakistan (Jammat-e-Islami).<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">An estimated 2.2 million students are enrolled by the five madrassah boards across Pakistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Skeptical<\/strong><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Maulana Wali Razi, a Karachi-based religious scholar, and a former minister for religious affairs does not see the university\u2019s offer as exciting.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThis (idea) does not attract me. There is a difference between the overall atmosphere and syllabus of madrassahs, and universities, therefore, the affiliation of madrassahs with the universities will cause many problems,\u201d Maulana Razi told OnIslame.net.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He observed that when the universities grant affiliation to any institution, then they often try to intervene in the syllabus related, and even in the administrative affairs.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cTherefore, instead of affiliation, the incumbent system (recognition of madrassah course equivalent to bachelor degree) is just fine. There is no need to change that,\u201d he added.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Maulana Razi who served as the religious minister from 1999 to 2002, however says if the universities \u2013in writing- assure the madrassah boards of not intervening in their syllabus, then he is ready to support the idea.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cBut again, I woul d say, the current system is better,\u201d he insisted.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Maulana Razi also rejected the notion that the university\u2019s decision will bring the madrassah students into the mainstream educational environment.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThis is not true that the madrassah students are living in isolation. They are very much in because nowadays a large number of madrassahs are teaching languages, science, social studies, and computer to their students,\u201d he thought.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Terming the Urdu University\u2019s offer to madrassah student for admission to masters and Phd classes \u201cnothing new,\u201d Maulana Razi said that this decision has been there for last three decades without implementation.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThe government had taken this decision 30 years ago but the state-owned and private universities are not implementing that,\u201d he said.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, the head of government\u2019s moon-sighting committee too appears to be undecided about the university offer.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cFrankly speaking, I do not know that what mechanism the university will adopt in this connection,\u201d Mufti Muneeb who is head of the Tanzeem-ul-Madaris board, which represents Brelvi school of thought, told OnIslam.net.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI will contact the university administration to know about the mechanism, and then we will decide to oppose or support this idea.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The western media often blames Pakistani madrassahs for providing reinforcement to Taliban fighters in war-hacked Afghanistan, a charge, the madrassahs\u2019 administration deny.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Many Taliban leaders including Supreme Leader, Mullah Omer have studied in Pakistani madrassahs, which once were supported and projected by the US and the western world to fight the defunct USSR forces in Afghanistan in 1980s.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Many Pakistanis believe that madrassahs are the largest NGO in the country, which provide free of cost boarding, lodging and education to the poor students.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A large number of Pakistanis cannot afford to send their children to schools due to grinding poverty, particularly in the rural areas. Therefore, madrassahs appear to be the only choice for them.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">According to World Bank, nearly 34 per cent Pakistanis live below poverty line, although the government puts these figures at 18 to 20 per cent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Source:<em><strong> OnIslam<\/strong> <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A huge number of students at Pakistan madrassahs have been offered a golden chance to create a better future after a decision by a state-owned university offering its affiliation to the country\u2019s religious seminaries and bringing hundreds of thousands of students to mainstream education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pakistan Univ. 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