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Curbs on seminaries face opposition

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Religious institutions vow not to stop teaching the concept ofjihad

ISLAMABAD: The law promulgated by the Musharraf Government for compulsory registration and audit of religious schools and their accounts has run into rough weather.

The Tanzimul Madaris Ahle Sunnat (Barelvi) has rejected registration of seminaries and said it would not cooperate unless their reservations about changes made in the law were removed.

Earlier last week, the Islamabad chapter of Wafaqul Madaris (Deobandi) had pledged not to get their affiliated seminaries registered and had constituted a 19-member committee to deal with the issue.

Speakers at a convention organised here by Tanzimul Madaris on "Religious institutions and contemporary needs" also said they would not abide by the Government's dictates on the question of syllabus nor would they stop teaching the concept of jihad as it was in the Koran and Hadith.

They rejected allegations that some religious schools were giving militancy training to students. A large number of scholars, including the Tanzim's chief, Mufti Munibur Rahman, and Sarfaraz Naeemi and Minister for Religious Affairs Ijazul Haq addressed the convention. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) president Qazi Hussain Ahmed also attended the convention but made no speech.

Mufti Munib said religious leaders wanted a dialogue with the Government on all issues concerning seminaries, but would not compromise on the independence of their institutions. He said the Government should carry out registration under the 1860 Societies Registration Act.

He claimed that a large number of seminaries were already registered under the act and there was no need for fresh registration. According to him, the alliance of five federations of religious schools "Ittehad Tanzeemat Madaris Deeniah" had reservations about the amended ordinance, especially its provision about submission of their audit reports to the registrar. He described the Government's policy of deporting foreign students of seminaries as discriminatory and violative of the Constitution and human rights.

The Minister for Religious Affairs said seminaries were playing the role of NGOs and urged them to promote moderation in society. He said the Government was distributing registration forms through the ITMD and it was the first time in the nation's history that an ordinance had been prepared in consultation with the ITMD.

The Minister faced some embarrassment when the participants started raising slogans against him when he talked about promoting enlightened moderation. Dr. Naeemi told the audience that Tanzim had the following of 3,542 seminaries and its students had always played a role of honorary ambassadors of the country.

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