Madrassa and Rogue Sharia Law - 2

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

(July 11, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) A typical Islamic school usually offers two courses of study: a hifz course; that is memorisation of the Qur'an [the person who commits the entire Qur'an to memory is called a hafiz]; and an 'alim course leading the candidate to become an accepted scholar in the community. A regular curriculum includes courses in Arabic, Tafsir [Qur'anic interpretation], shari'ah [Islamic law], Hadith [recorded sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad], Mantiq [logic], and Muslim History. In the Ottoman Empire, during the Early Modern Period, the learning of the Hadith was introduced by Suleyman I. Depending on the educational demands, some madrasahs also offer additional advanced courses in Arabic literature, English and other foreign languages, as well as science and world history. Ottoman madrasahs along with religious teachings also taught "styles of writing, grammary, syntax, poetry, composition, natural sciences, political sciences, and etiquette."

People of all ages attend, and many often move on to becoming imams. The certificate of an 'alim for example, requires approximately twelve years of study. A good number of the huffaz [plural of hafiz] are the product of the madrasahs. The madrasahs also resemble colleges, where people take evening classes and reside in dormitories. An important function of the madrasahs is to admit orphans and poor children in order to provide them with education and training. Madrasahs may enroll female students; however, they study separately from the men.

In South Africa, the madrasahs also play a socio-cultural role in giving after-school religious instruction to Muslim children who attend government or private non-religious schools. However, increasing numbers of more affluent Muslim children attend full-fledged private Islamic Schools which combine secular and religious education. Among Muslims of Indian origin, madrasahs also used to provide instruction in Urdu, although this is far less common today than it used to be.

Madrasahs did not exist in the early beginnings of Islam. Their formation can probably be traced to the early Islamic custom of meeting in mosques to discuss religious issues. At this early stage, people seeking religious knowledge tended to gather around certain more knowledgeable Muslims. These informal teachers later became known as shaykhs; and these shaykhs began to hold regular religious education sessions called majalis [Sessions].

Established in 859, Jami'at al-Qarawiyyin (located in Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque) in the city of Fas, Morocco, is considered the oldest madrasah in the Muslim world. It was founded by Fatima al-Fihri, the daughter of a wealthy merchant named Mohammed Al-Fihri. This was later followed by Al-Azhar University, established in 959 in Cairo, Egypt.

During the late Abbasid period, the Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk created the first major official academic institution known in history as the Madrasah Nizamiyyah, based on the informal majalis (sessions of the shaykhs). Al-Mulk, who would later be murdered by the Assassins [Hashshashin], created a system of state madrasahs [in his time they were called, the Nizamiyyahs, named after him] in various Abbasid cities at the end of the 11th century.

During the rule of the Fatimid and Mamluk dynasties and their successor states in the medieval Middle East, many of the ruling elite founded madrasahs through a religious endowment known as the waq'f. Not only was the madrasah a potent symbol of status but it was an effective means of transmitting wealth and status to their descendants. Especially during the Mamluk period, when only former slaves could assume power, the sons of the ruling Mamluk elite were unable to inherit. Guaranteed positions within the new madrasahs thus allowed them to maintain status. Madrasahs built in this period include the Mosque-Madrasah of Sultan Hasan in Cairo.

The following excerpt provides a brief synopsis of the historical origins and starting points for the teachings that took place in the Ottoman madrasahs in the Early Modern Period:

"Taşköprülüzâde's concept of knowledge and his division of the sciences provides a starting point for a study of learning and medrese education in the Ottoman Empire. Taşköprülüzâde recognizes four stages of knowledge - spiritual, intellectual, oral and written. Thus all the sciences fall into one of these seven categories: calligraphic sciences, oral sciences, intellectual sciences, spiritual sciences, theoretical rational sciences, practical rational sciences. The First Ottoman medrese was created in Iznik in 1331, when a converted Church building was assigned as a medrese to a famous scholar, Dâvûd of Kayseri. Suleyman made an important change in the hierarchy of Ottoman medreses. He established four general medreses and two more for specialized studies, one devoted to the hadith and the other to medicine. He gave the highest ranking to these and thus established the hierarchy of the medreses which was to continue until the end of the empire."

During this time, the Caliphate, or Islamic Empire, experienced a growth in literacy, having the highest literacy rate of the Middle Ages, comparable to Athens' literacy in Classical Antiquity but on a larger scale.

What is a Maktab?

In the medieval Islamic world, an elementary school was known as a maktab, which dates back to at least the 10th century. Like madrasahs [which referred to higher education], a maktab was often attached to a mosque. In the 11th century, the famous Persian Islamic philosopher, Ibn Sina [known as Avicenna in the West], in one of his books, wrote a chapter dealing with the maktab entitled "The Role of the Teacher in the Training and Upbringing of Children", as a guide to teachers working at maktab schools. He wrote that children can learn better if taught in classes instead of individual tuition from private tutors, and he gave a number of reasons for why this is the case, citing the value of competition and emulation among pupils as well as the usefulness of group discussions and debates. Ibn Sina described the curriculum of a maktab school in some detail, describing the curricula for two stages of education in a maktab school.

Ibn Sina wrote that children should be sent to a maktab school from the age of 6 and be taught primary education until they reach the age of 14. During which time, he wrote that they should be taught the Qur'an, Islamic metaphysics, language, literature, Islamic ethics, and manual skills [which could refer to a variety of practical skills].

Ibn Sina refers to the secondary education stage of maktab schooling as the period of specialization, when pupils should begin to acquire manual skills, regardless of their social status. He writes that children after the age of 14 should be given a choice to choose and specialize in subjects they have an interest in, whether it was reading, manual skills, literature, preaching, medicine, geometry, trade and commerce, craftsmanship, or any other subject or profession they would be interested in pursuing for a future career. He wrote that this was a transitional stage and that there needs to be flexibility regarding the age in which pupils graduage, as the student's emotional development and chosen subjects need to be taken into account.

Higher education:

During the formative period of the madrasah, used to refer to a higher education institution, philosophy and the secular sciences were often excluded from its curriculum, which initially only included the "religious sciences". The curriculum slowly began to diversify, with many later madrasahs teaching both the religious and the "secular sciences", like logic, mathematics and philosophy. Some madrasahs further extended their curriculum to history, politics, ethics, music, metaphysics, medicine, astronomy and chemistry. Some Islamic schools by the 12th century also taught early ideas related to evolution. The curriculum of a madrasah was usually set by its founder, but most generally taught both the religious sciences and the physical sciences. Madrasahs were established throughout the Islamic world, the most famous being the 10th century Al-Azhar University and the 11th century Nizamiyya, as well as 75 madrasahs in Cairo, 51 in Damascus and up to 44 in Aleppo between 1155 and 1260. Many more were also established in the Andalusian citites of Córdoba, Seville, Toledo, Granada, Murcia, Almería, Valencia and Cádiz during the Caliphate of Córdoba.

In the Ottoman Empire during the early modern period, "Madrasahs were divided into lower and specialized levels, which reveals that there was a sense of elevation in school. Students who studied in the specialized schools after completing courses in the lower levels became known as danismends."

The origins of the college and university lie in the medieval Islamic world. While "madrasah" can now refer to any type of school, the term "madrasah" was originally used to refer more specifically to a medieval Islamic college, mainly teaching Islamic law and theology, usually affiliated with a mosque, and funded by an early charitable trust known as Waqf, the origins of the trust law. The internal organization of the first European colleges was also borrowed from the earlier madrasahs, like the system of fellows and scholars, with the Latin term for fellow, socius, being a direct translation of the Arabic term for fellow, sahib.

The funding for madrasahs came primarily from Waqf instititions, which were similar to the charitable trusts which later funded the first European colleges. Syed Farid Alatas writes:

"The madrasah was established as a charitable trust [waqf] founded by individual Muslims, which legally bounded the founder to run it as a madrasah. It had the legal status of an institution but was not a state institution. According to Makdisi, there are two arguments in favour of the idea of the Islamic origins of the college. One is the waqf or charitable trust and the other the internal organization of the college."

The first universities, in the sense of institutions of higher education and research which issue academic degrees at all levels [bachelor, master and doctorate], were the Jami'ah ["university" in Arabic] founded in the 9th century. While the madrasah college could also issue degrees at all levels, like a university college, the Jami`ah differed in the sense that it was a larger institution that was more universal in terms of its complete source of studies, had individual faculties for different subjects, and could house a number of mosques, madrasahs and other institutions within it. The University of Al Karaouine in Fez, Morocco is thus recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest degree-granting university in the world with its founding in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri.

Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo, Egypt in 975, was a Jami'ah which offered a variety of post-graduate degrees [ijazah], and had individual faculties for a theological seminary, Islamic law and jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Islamic astronomy, early Islamic philosophy and logic in Islamic philosophy. Abd-el-latif also delivered lectures on Islamic medicine at Al-Azhar, while Maimonides delivered lectures on medicine and astronomy there during the time of Saladin. Another early university was the Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad (founded 1091), considered the "largest university of the Medieval world". Mustansiriya University, established by the Abbasid caliph al-Mustansir in 1233, in addition to teaching the religious subjects, offered courses dealing with philosophy, mathematics and the natural sciences.

Madrasahs were the first to have law schools, and it is likely that the "law schools known as Inns of Court in England" may have been derived from the Madrasahs which taught Islamic law and jurisprudence.

The origins of the doctorate dates back to the ijazat attadris wa 'l-ifta' ["license to teach and issue legal opinions"] in the medieval Islamic legal education system, which was equivalent to the Doctor of Laws qualification and was developed during the 9th century after the formation of the Madh'hab legal schools. To obtain a doctorate, a student "had to study in a guild school of law, usually four years for the basic undergraduate course" and ten or more years for a post-graduate course. The "doctorate was obtained after an oral examination to determine the originality of the candidate's theses", and to test the student's "ability to defend them against all objections, in disputations set up for the purpose." These were scholarly exercises practiced throughout the student's "career as a graduate student of law." After students completed their post-graduate education, they were awarded doctorates giving them the status of faqih [meaning "master of law"], mufti [meaning "professor of legal opinions"] and mudarris [meaning "teacher"], which were later translated into Latin as magister, professor and doctor respectively.

The term doctorate comes from the Latin docere, meaning "to teach", shortened from the full Latin title licentia docendi meaning "license to teach." This was translated from the Arabic term ijazat attadris, which means the same thing and was awarded to Islamic scholars who were qualified to teach. Similarly, the Latin term doctor, meaning "teacher", was translated from the Arabic term mudarris, which also means the same thing and was awarded to qualified Islamic teachers. The Latin term baccalaureus may have also been transliterated from the equivalent Arabic qualification bi haqq al-riwaya ["the right to teach on the authority of another"].

The Islamic scholarly system of fatwa and ijma, meaning opinion and consensus respectively, formed the basis of the "scholarly system the West has practised in university scholarship from the Middle Ages down to the present day." George Makdisi writes:

"This very system found its way to London, in the development of the Inns of Court, four of which have come down to our times: autonomous, professional, and unincorporated guild schools of law, like the guild schools of law of classical Islam. The same system found its way also to the universities of the West, beginning with Italy, France, England and Spain, and later to the United States, when graduate work was introduced from Germany. In other words, the Islamic system of determining orthodoxy in religion was, in its essentials, the medieval Western university system of determining "orthodoxy", so to speak, in scholarship, which has come down to our day."

"It surely is no coincidence that in the next decades Mehmed and his successors brought in scholars from the Islamic heartland and established prestigious theological seminaries [medreses] as they moved their developing state toward Islamic orthodoxy."

"This scholarly system of determining orthodoxy began with a question which the Muslim layman, called in that capacity mustafti, presented to a jurisconsult, called mufti, soliciting from him a response, called fatwa, a legal opinion [the religious law of Islam covers civil as well as religious matters]. The mufti [professor of legal opinions] took this question, studied it, researched it intensively in the sacred scriptures, in order to find a solution to it. This process of scholarly research vas called ijtihad, literally, the exertion of one's efforts to the utmost limit."

But, the 'good era' of Madrassas are already over. For past few decades, madrassas are gradually turning into focal point of jihadist brainstorming centers and thousands of jihadists are coming out of these institutions each year thus getting spread in the entire world either as a clergie or as a member of Tablig Jamaat or just covert civilian in the society with extremely notorious orientation of hate speech, religious hatred and war against 'enemies of Islam'.

In India, there are around 50,000 operating madrasahs. The majority of these schools follow the Hanafi school of thought. The religious establishments form part mainly of the two large divisions within the country, namely the deobandies dominating in The Subcontinent, Then Darul Uloom Deoband One of The Biggest Madrasaah in World and the barelvis sizeable portion [sufi orientated]. Some notable establishments include: Jamia Ashrafia, Mubarakpur which is one the largest learing centres for the Barelvis. Darul Uloom Deoband Largest, is considered the most famous, Renowned Madrasah in World establishment. For past two decades, this madrassa has turned into one of the worst place of breeding Jihadists. According to various information, students coming out of this institution are heavy in their minds with the poison of religious hatred.

There are more than 73,000 madrasas currently operating in Pakistan. It is estimated that one to two million children are enrolled in madrasahs.The Madaris were few in number when Pakistan was created but were expanded during the rule of the dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haq [1977-1988]. The expansion occurred both because of the growth in Pakistan's population and because their students [especially the Deobandis] were used to fight the Soviet Union during the Afghan war [1980-1987]. Later on the Taliban also had links with the Deobandi madrassas established by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam. Some of the madrassas published lists of their students who had fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir against the Indian defence forces in the Kargil War over Kashmir, which is claimed by both Pakistan and India. The Talab of the madaris became involved in 1995 when the Taliban started their struggle against the Afghan warlords and Shumali Ittehad.

After 9/11, it became clear that a large section of Afghanistan's Taliban as well as other Islamist millitants came from Madarassa background. They were taught garrila warfare even during the 'reigious education'. Especially Madrassas in Pakistan are the major base of jihadist breeding. Altough there are arguments on the question of how much percentage of Pakistani madrassas or madrassas elsewhere are creating jihadists, it is definitely a fact, already endorsed by many that, Madrassas fail to at least create good and active citizen in any country due to various problems already existing within these institutions as well as due to badly weakened education system.

According to some experts in Pakistan, Madrassas in that country are regularly generating 'Mujahids' [Jihadists] especially for fighting against Indian government in Jammu and Kashmir front. Moreover, 'hate West' notion is planted in the minds of all the students of such institution, which encourages them in doing anything harmful to the Western societies or individuals or governments. Almost 99 per cent of the Madrassa students consider doing any harm to the West is their sacred duty.

Commenting on Madrassa education, a moderate former student of such religious school said, “It is true that there were good reasons for people jumping to the assumption of the Madrassa's' culpability. The terrifyingly ultra-conservative Taliban regime was unquestionably the product of Pakistan's Madrassas. Many Madrassas are indeed fundamentalist in their approach to the scriptures and many subscribe to the most hard-line strains of Islamic thought. It is also true that some Madrassas can be directly linked to Islamist radicalism and occasionally to outright civil violence. It is estimated that as many as 80% of Pakistan's Madrassas preach violent jihad, while a few have even been known to provide covert military training.”

“But it is now becoming very clear that producing cannon-fodder for the Taliban and graduating local sectarian thugs is not at all the same as producing the kind of technically literate al-Qaida terrorist who carried out the horrifyingly sophisticated attacks on the World Trade Center. Indeed, there is an important and fundamental distinction to be made between most Madrassa graduates - who tend to be pious villagers from impoverished economic backgrounds, possessing little technical sophistication - and the sort of middle-class, politically literate, global Salafi Jihadists who plan al-Qaida operations around the world. Most of these turn out to have secular scientific or technical backgrounds and very few actually turn out to be Madrassa graduates.”

Muslim influence in Southeast Asia dates back to the arrival of Arab traders, who established maritime trade routes to the Middle East as early as the seventh century C.E. Islam spread within Southeast Asia as trade with the Middle East flourished. By the thirteenth century C.E., trading outposts were firmly established on the islands of Java and Sumatra. In 1292, the Venetian traveler Marco Polo reported contact with a Muslim township named Perlak on northern Sumatra. These early Muslim inroads into Southeast Asia did not result in the religious violence characterized by the initial spread of Islam in the Middle East and Central Asia. This was due to two factors specific to the region. The initial wave of Muslims arriving in Southeast Asia were not driven by a desire to convert; rather, they were merchants and entrepreneurs seeking worldly profits. Additionally, unlike in the Middle East, where contention between the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam ran thick, initial Muslim expansion into Southeast Asia was met by peoples following Buddhist and Hindu belief structures. Proselytizing on the part of Muslims was thus not seen as a threat to the existing structure. This situation would continue until the arrival of Christianity in the region during the 16th Century.

The roots of religious and ethnic violence in Southeast Asia can be traced back before the arrival of the Spanish and Dutch in the mid-1500s. The introduction of Catholicism to the Philippines, however, provided an opportunity to extend the old conflicts between Christians and Muslims. The Spanish, recently victorious in their 800-year battle against the Moors on the Iberian Peninsula, were shocked to find that their hated adversaries had preceded them to the Philippines. The Spanish occupation of Luzon in 1571 was followed by operations to subdue Muslim areas in southern Mindanao. Though successful in defeating the Muslim sultanates on Mindanao, subsequent Spanish policies toward Muslim minorities and the introduction of Filipino Christians into positions of authority above Muslims ensured the creation of long-standing grievances. These policies were alleviated, but not eliminated, during the United States protectorate era. To some extent they remain at the root of current troubles.

Ethnic and religious violence in Southeast Asia has varied in intensity throughout the last five hundred-plus years. Today, radicals espousing an ideal of universal jihad have suborned the regional religious conflict in Southeast Asia. They have manipulated the legacy of regional violence into a campaign against the West and its allies. Dramatic events such as the 12 October 2002 Bali bombings and connections to both World Trade Center attacks demonstrate the effectiveness of efforts by certain radical elements within Southeast Asia to promote the goal of universal jihad. Recent counter-terrorist successes have offered more insight into the operations of these radicals. They provide a picture of a loose, trans-national web of like-minded organizations that not only share information, but also facilities, funding, training and personnel.

The legacy of religious violence that provides a foundation for the current Southeast Asian pan-Islamic movement gained momentum after the Second World War with the Darul Islam (Islamic State) rebellions in Indonesia. The Darul Islam rebellions in Aceh, South Sulawesi, and West Java started in the aftermath of Indonesia's separation from the Dutch government. The leaders of the movement were primarily from the urban middle-class who believed the umma (Muslim community) needed to return to the Quran and Hadith in order to eliminate impurities within Islam. Indonesian forces successfully defeated the rebellions by the mid-1960s but not before they had left a significant ideological mark on a new generation of Islamic radicals.

Two events in the latter part of the 20th century that further promulgated Islamic radicalism and, hence Islamic terrorism were the Soviet-Afghan War from 1979-1989 and the expansion of the Jihadist-Salafi movement supported both directly and indirectly by the Saudi-based Wahhabi sect of Islam. Wahhabism has been used as a vehicle by radical Jihadist-Salafis to promulgate a pogrom against all who do not support their beliefs. Jihadists are radical Muslims seeking revolutionary change to political and social order; dedicated to violence and terrorism. They actively support or conduct activities directed toward the realization of their goals. A thorough understanding of the Muslim history of jihad and its application in the Soviet-Afghan War, as well as the rise of Wahhabism is an important part of any examination of the increasing interoperability of radical Muslim groups in Southeast Asia.

Wahhabism is a late-18th century Islamic movement that forms the basis of the present Saudi Arabian state. It is also the foundation of the "teaching" going on at thousands of Madrassa, pesantren, or poh noh [Islamic schools] in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan and elsewhere. It promotes a literal interpretation of the Qur'an and Hadith that has served as an educational and normative tool for the Islamic radicals that feed into terrorist organizations. Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahab, the religious founder of the Wahhabiyya movement [Wahhabism], opposed any form of innovation in Islam, and called for a return to Islam's roots. He believed jihad could, and should, be carried out against any other Muslims who did not support his beliefs. Born in 1703 in an eastern portion of what would become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abd al-Wahhab developed an ideology that sought to reform Islam by returning to its roots and eliminating any distortions. His beliefs were adopted and then promoted by the House of Al-Sa'ud. They would eventually become the state religion of Saudi Arabia. The relationship between the Salafi movement and Wahhabism is quite complicated and does not fall within the scope of the overview provided in this analysis. In many ways, Wahhabism is part of the Salafi movement within Islam. Salafis also promote a return to the roots of Islam and are violently opposed to religious innovations adopted by Sufi and Shi'a thinkers.

Were it not for the discovery of oil in the Saudi Arabian peninsula and the vast wealth it generated, Wahhabism would likely have remained a fringe movement inside Islam. It was the infusion of this great oil wealth that has allowed Saudi Arabia to export its Wahhabi beliefs in the form of public works projects and religious schools throughout the Muslim world. Saudi nationals formed the initial core cadre of Wahhabi 'missionaries' who have proselytized throughout the Muslim world. Their teachings have had a significant effect on the population of Southeast Asia. Its conservative, assertive brand of Islam has found great appeal, especially in the predominantly Muslim countries of Indonesia and Malaysia. Tens of thousand of Southeast Asian Muslims have traveled abroad to study in Islamic universities, including those in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan. Southeast Asian governments have no idea how many of their citizens have studied in or are currently enrolled in these Madrassas. Islamic religious schools have become the primary recruiting grounds and, in some cases, training facilities for Muslim terrorist organizations.

Opponents of Wahhabism state that its main goal is to destroy traditional Islam and replace it with an extremist, ultra-rigid version of Islam. They believe this is carried out through indoctrination, infiltration, and financial subsidies. Wahhabi-Saudi penetration of local Islamic communities often starts with infrastructure investments in the local community. A common tactic is the construction of mosques, often funded by Saudis. Later come schools, health clinics, etc. According to Stephen Schwarz, the immediate goal of Wahhabism is to capture and guide the global Islamic community, but its doctrines are "also deeply suffused with hatred of other religions." This hatred can lead to the promulgation of violence. Proponents of Wahhabism say that the movement is benign and that the radicalism comes from the Sufi and Shi'a elements within Islam. The truth lies somewhere in between. Whatever the case, one of the primary detrimental effects of the Saudi-based Wahhabi movement is the manner in which it disperses funds to virtually any Muslim cause with little or no oversight. Saudi money has flowed into Muslim causes throughout the world with little or no control. This has allowed Jihadists free reign to divert funds to separatist and terrorist organizations. It is true that Wahhabi Madrassas have become primary breeding grounds for terrorists. The problem is that in many areas of the world, a Saudi-backed Madrassa is the only form of education open to young men. International terrorist organizations have penetrated these schools and used them as a cover to preach their extreme form of hatred of the West. Students within the schools who appear to be open to their ideology are identified and selected for further indoctrination.

The Soviet-Afghan war was perhaps the most significant event in the formation of an international terrorist network. In the case of Southeast Asian groups, all the key figures went to Afghanistan to participate in jihad and experience the glory of defeating the Soviets. The war thus became a source of inspiration and training for many like-minded Muslim men throughout the world. It was in Afghanistan that future terrorists forged their initial links with Al-Qaida. Hundreds of Southeast Asians traveled to fight against the Soviets and later to fight alongside the Taliban in their numerous factional conflicts. The Madrassas formed the ideological front line against the Soviets, acting as recruiting grounds for potential Mujahidin. Once in Afghanistan, Mujahidin began a process of transformation, receiving training in various terrorist tradecrafts and establishing bonds of brotherhood with their comrades-in-arms that would allow them to carry jihad home. As noted in a White Paper published by the government of Singapore on 7 January 2003:

In Afghanistan, Al-Qaida taught these key figures sophisticated terrorist tradecraft and expertise. After they returned to Southeast Asia, they transferred the skills to other members of their organizations. Their shared experience training in Afghanistan also fostered links among these leaders, and between them and their Al-Qaida trainers and mentors. Collectively, they formed a loose but trusted "brotherhood" of militants and Mujahidin fighters that supported each other if any need arose. After the war, the Taliban regime continued to harbor and assist Al-Qaida in its pursuit of universal jihad. The Islamists in Southeast Asia maintained their links and continued to travel into Afghanistan. In the 1990s, CIA stations in Jakarta and the Middle East tried to keep track of some 700-1500 Indonesian students who had traveled to Egypt, Syria, and Iran for study. According to a retired CIA officer, "We figured 30% - 40% of them never showed up. We don't know where they went." It is fair to assume that a number of those unaccounted for ended up in training camps in Afghanistan.

Kindergarten Madrassa:

Since 1999, there is a growing phenomenon of mushroom growth of kindergarten Madrassas [Islamic religious kindergartens] in almost all the Muslim nations, preaching Wahhabism, which greatly encourages people towards jihad and killing of Jews and Christians. In present days, only in Bangladesh there are 64,000 Qaomi [Koranic] Madrassas, while the number of kindergarten Madrassas, mostly financed by dubious Afro-Arab sources has already crossed a few thousand throughout the country. And, of course, most interestingly, Madrassas and kindergarten Madrassas are the most notorious places to breed religious extremists and terrorists. Children are given orientations to accept Ossama Bin Laden as a hero, while endorsing the notoriety of Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah or Hamas as 'holy task'.

... Continued

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is the editor of Weekly Blitz.