Eagle eyes on Madrasas needed
The issue of the mushrooming Islamic study centres (Madrasas) and the ‘Arabisation’ of the Muslim community of Sri Lanka has been the talk of every town in the country since the roundly condemned Easter Sunday bombings attributed to ‘misguided’ elements within the Islamic faith. The statistics of the numbers of Arabic colleges and Madrassas that have opened up in recent years are mind-boggling, to say the least.
In the heat of the Easter Sunday attacks, there’s a rush to look at these twin issues. It is not unusual for this easy-going island nation of so-called lotus-eaters to wake up to reality only when some shocking event occurs.
Muslim community leaders argue that the trend towards ‘Arabisation’ has its roots in those returning from work in Arab countries and is no different to other Sri Lankans who go to the West and return “Westernized’ with Western habits and dress forms. They admit that the Arabic dress codes that make for high visibility in multi ethnic societies especially when the garment is black, may also hinder social interaction. Black has no religious significance and the same garment in pastel shades might blend better with the rest of society and facilitate wider participation by the wearer in the life of such a multi-cultural society.
The Madrasas however, is an even more serious issue, one that the mainstream Muslim community has long been discussing and debating because of the informal and ad hoc way they have been established. They, too, have called for a common curriculum, a matter now under consideration. There is a justifiable call that these Madrasas come under the purview of the Central Government (not the Provincial Councils) and the Ministry of Education. The Muslim Affairs Ministry is more susceptible to pressures from clerics and politicians.
The problem, however, is the lack of staff proficient in Arabic which brings out the question as to the need for so many Arabic colleges in this country. What does a graduate from these Arabic colleges do in Sri Lanka other than teach Arabic to more and more students. This can even be equated to the inward-looking demand by some for a ban on private tuition classes on Sundays and insisting that young Buddhists attend Daham Pasalas at the expense of a general education that will enable students find places in the job markets and contribute to the economy of the country.
Muslim leaders point out that none of the Easter Sunday bombers was educated in Madrasas, except for the leader who, in fact, was expelled from one of them. The rest were students of international schools! The confusion may be that Madrasas in Pakistan were known to produce young people with militant ideology, but it is a fact that the number of foreign teachers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan etc., with such extreme ideology were given easy ‘entre’ to Sri Lanka. The visa requirements for religious teachers also must meet not only the stipulations of the Line Ministry (the Muslim Affairs Ministry), but those of either the Education, Defence, Law and Order or Home Ministry. In the UK, it is the Home Office.
Likewise, the controversial ‘Shariah University’ in Batticaloa must be made a campus for all – within the university system of Sri Lanka.