Pakistan's Madrasas and the Phobia of Foreign Students

In the wake of the attacks on the United States of America on 11 September 2001; the US-led invasions of Afghanistan in 2002, and the bombings in London in July 2005, Pakistan has emerged on the international stage as both a crisis-riddled country where radical religious politics has gone out of control and – at the same time – as a key ally in Washington's ‘war on terror’.

The ambivalent image of Pakistan as a strategic frontline state has been reflected upon by scholars and media commentators alike and this ambivalence has been projected upon the country's madrasas as well. Since the 1980s, Pakistan has witnessed a boom in the madrasa sector, with hundreds of new madrasas being created along the Afghan-Pakistani border; mainly to provide rudimentary education for the thousands of Afghan refugee children who had fled their country, but also to train many of the young boys in the ways of warfare and to produce the rank-and-file of the Mujahidin who would later return to Afghanistan to take part in the Afghan jihad against the Soviets. Later in the 1990s, many of these madrasas would also be used to recruit and train the Taliban who would also play a key role in the politics of Afghanistan and Central Asia. Following the discovery that several of the London bombers of 2005 had travelled to Pakistan and studied at madrasas there, another concern was raised: namely that of foreign students who travel from one country to another in search of Islamic education and what might happen to them in the madrasas they visit. Again, there were calls for the Pakistani government to take decisive steps in controlling the activities in the madrasas, monitoring their links with radical Islamist groups as well as the movement of students between them.

Long before the latest wave of measures to control the madrasas of Pakistan, the Pakistani government had already embarked on an ambitious reform process to regulate, control and monitor the activities of the country's madrasas as well as the movement of students between them. This was one of the stated goals of General Pervez Musharraf's government, which came to power in October 1999 after toppling the government of Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan Muslim League (PMS-NS).