For Indian Muslims, the highest priority for their children is their religious education, which they are introduced to in maktabs or madrassas. From these emerged many past intellectuals and leaders, including Abul Kalam Azad, Zakir Hussain, Rafi Ahmad Kidwai and Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi. Indeed, one of the most prestigious of the madrassas, Deoband, was at the forefront of the freedom struggle and had opposed tooth and nail the “two nation” concept.

However, these days you look at any Indian newspaper, magazine and TV show and you will find negative stories about madrassas — both the way they are run and what they teach. Most disturbing is the fact that they are being projected as centers spreading anti-national sentiment. So it seems that certain sections of the media, in connivance with Hindu extremists, are spreading stories about one of the oldest mediums of education in India.

The media have reported widely that the Intelligence Bureau has prepared a report which says that a number of mosques and madrassas in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Gujarat were “brainwashing” young Muslims. It is said that a few madrassas near the Nepal border were also suspected to be bases for “fundamentalist” groups.

The role played by the media is extremely negative. The pictures and commentaries are designed to fuel outrage against these seats of learning rather than urge restraint and uphold the law.

Obviously, all such reports are creating tensions and instilling in the Muslim community a sense of insecurity. It is not fair to dub all madrassas as terrorist hide-outs. The government owes the people a clarification. No Muslim will ever believe that scores of madrassas in the country were promoting “fundamentalism”.

There are about 100,000 madrassas in the country. The government keeps on raking up the subject of madrassas though it has no concrete evidence to prove the allegations.

So, the government must halt its “hate campaign” against madrassas, and it should first prove its claim that some of them are hubs of terrorism.

Is there any madrassa which has been found indulging in any nefarious activities till date? This is a big question, which everyone from the top to bottom in the government, avoid to answer.

A lot of confusion also prevails about the funding of these religious schools. Though they are mostly funded by Zakah and donations from within the country, unnecessarily a phobia has been created that they get funding from the Middle East. There is a possibility that some of them might be getting some financial assistance from abroad. But that too they get after clearance from the Home Ministry.

But so is also the case with so many Hindu organizations such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), most of whose finances come from abroad. But they are never labeled as anti-national groups and no finger is raised about their functioning.

In fact, right-wing Hindu groups have traditionally been critical of madrassas, which impart religious education to young Muslims. But there are madrassas which include most of the subjects taught in different schools and are recognized by the universities.

Not only that, in some states, madrassa education continues as an alternative stream of education. Efforts have been made to make them more utilitarian.

In Kerala, there are 12,000 madrassas which other than religious text, have a graded syllabus, statewide examination boards and some form of teachers’ training also.

Recently, the Gujarat government talked to the Muslim community in Kutch district bordering Pakistan in a bid to wean away their children from madrassas, “the breeding ground of fundamentalism.”

The reason, why the Gujarat government is in a desperate bid to woo the Muslim students, is that contrary to the government propaganda against the madarssas all over, in this part of the state, they have become quite popular. The reason for this is that the madrassas also act as primary schools here.

A total of 320 madrassas are functioning in the district. At least 10 are added every year, and they are hugely popular with parents of children who are unhappy with the poor state of affairs in mainstream government schools. The attraction for madrassas remains although many of them are housed in hutments with very few facilities.

Recently, Congress party President Sonia Gandhi while showing concern over the campaign against madrassas said that on the pretext of modernizing madarssas, an attempt are being made by some political groups to subvert the traditions of these institutions. She sounds correct.

The self-styled cultural police want to undermine the religious education given in these institutions.

There is an urgent need to rationalize and simplify the madrassa system of education to make it more efficient.

Madarssas need to be modernized and scientific methods of teaching introduced in them, but this needs to be done keeping in mind the traditions they followed. But at the same time calling them “factories of terrorism” is nothing but sacrilege.