Religious Policing In The Name Of Learning of the Quran in Pakistan: Pervez Hoodbhoy Predicts Saudi-Style Militant Mutawwa Policing In the Country
A New
Era of Religious Policing Has Begun With the Single National Curriculum Programme
in Pakistan
Main
Points:
1. Children are made to learn
and memorise the Quran in the class.
2. Children need to carry the
Quran in their school bags.
3. Principals and teachers are
being pressurized to implement the programme.
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By New Age Islam Staff Writer
7 December 2021
In Pakistan, religion has been a ploy to
cover the inefficacy of illegitimacy of political power. Religion provides them
the easiest way to find support for their inefficient governance. This happened
during the dictatorship of Gen. Ziaul Haque and now during the tenure of Prime
Minister Imran Khan.
According to an article written by Pakistani
nuclear scientist and a frequent commentator on social issues Pervez Hoodbhoy
in Dawn, the Pakistan government is heading towards Islamisation of the
national school system. Reading and
learning of the Quran by heart has been mandatory under the new Single National
Curriculum. Under this system schools students across the country, including
minor girls and boys of primary classes are required to learn the Quran and
have to bring copies of Quran for that purpose to school daily.
Though the purpose of the new programme
under SNC is to bring uniformity in the education system across the country,
the focus is only on the learning of the Quran in schools. Principals and
teachers of schools are being responsible for any laxity on their part.
In Pakistan, the madrasa education system
takes care of the Islamic education including teaching of the Quran. And there
are millions of madrasas in the country. Still, the government of Paksitan has
introduced this system and has made learning of the Quran in schools mandatory
and that too teachers and Principals are being penalized for any negligence in
this regard.
In Pakistan, cases of blasphemy are slapped
against those who desecrate the Quran or in any way. Some years ago, a
Hafiz-e-Quran was lynched and burnt by an angry mob for accidently dropping the
Quran in fire at home. A lady called Darakhshan was lynched and her dead body
was burnt in Kabul by an unruly mob a few years ago for allegedly the book of
talisman which contained verses of the Quran.
Since the children will carry the Quran in
their school bags carrying text books, they will not be able to show care to
the Quran as they will keep the bags with them. It will be carried by them like
other text books. Children will sometimes drop the bags on the floor
accidentally or not finding appropriate place to keep the bags, they will put
the bags on the floor. Sometimes, books bulge out of the bags and fall on the
floor.
Why this was done in a hurry does not find
any explanation. It is obvious that to distract the attention of the people
from the failure of his government, Imran Khan has implemented this system so
that the general Muslims will forget the drawbacks of his governance. Another
reason may be the rise of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan with which the government
has entered into an agreement of which the terms have not been divulged.
This programme will also lead to cases of
blasphemy against teachers and principals of schools and also against
non-Muslim students of schools. In Pakistan, blasphemy cases are filed against
those who do not conform to the ideology of the opposite sect or criticize the behaviour
and beliefs of the other sects. That Principals and teachers of schools will
fall victim of this programme cannot be denied.
This programme will instil fear of
punishment for not learning the Quran among the innocent children. Carrying and
keeping it with care will be a psychological burden for them and they will be
deprived of the joy of going to school and of learning. Religion or religious
scriptures should not be made the cause of fear among the children. But
unfortunately, the Imran Khan government has made it so. This programme will
have far reaching social ramifications if not withdrawn.
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By Pervez Hoodbhoy
December 4th, 2021
‘MUTAWWA’ is Arabic for the once-feared Saudi
religious police. Tasked to implement behavioural standards set by oil-fuelled Wahhabism,
its wings have been clipped by the ongoing liberalisation sweeping the Middle
East. But, under Imran Khan, Pakistan is flying elsewhere. To implement the
government’s new Single National Curriculum (SNC), strict religious policing of
public and private schools has begun. A Pakistani version of the Mutawwa is emerging.
Marked as ‘Court Case — Most Important’, in
a letter dated Nov 10, 2021, the School Education Department of the Punjab
Government issued a directive that, as per orders received from the Lahore High
Court, all schools in the province must be rigorously checked for Quranic
reading/nazra skills. Each school will be jointly inspected by the head of the
district education authority and a district & sessions judge. Cellphone
numbers of school principals and teachers, together with a list of several
hundred schools targeted for inspection, have been provided.
Reading the Quran under a maulvi’s
supervision has been a normal, age-old practice in every Muslim household —
including that of the writer. But dispatching law-enforcers to enforce a
tradition is new and bizarre. Preliminary reports suggest province-wide confusion
and chaos, and a state of fear among children, teachers, and school principals.
Magistrates accompanied by rifle-bearing
policemen are pouncing upon schools, interrogating seven- to 12-year-old
children. Their teachers are ordered out of the classroom or asked to stand
silently in the corner. In some cases, school principals have been told to
present themselves in person before authorities located in various parts of the
province.
Punishments are being handed out. Last
week, a sessions judge in Nankana Sahib recommended disciplinary action against
three school principals. They were accused of paying insufficient attention to
Quran teaching as a separate subject, a requirement of the SNC. Included in the
charge sheet is that their schools had “students who had Paras of the Holy
Quran and were keeping them in their school bags which is gross negligence”.
This needs explanation. As the reader may
know, no copy of the Quran can be kept together with ordinary books. Visiting
magistrates accuse children of bringing Quran copies from home inside their
backpacks together with their textbooks. But what else can the kids do? Carry
two backpacks? Rudimentary schools, such as they exist in villages or poor
urban areas, have barely enough sitting room and no storage space. Cupboards,
if any, are few while those with locks are still fewer.
Magistrates have also noted that backpacks
are thrown around or placed on the floor. According to a school principal in
his school at least four accidental drops of the holy book have occurred in a
sixth grade class. While these caused a stir subsequent developments could not
be known. The severity of punishments — which could possibly include those for
blasphemy — means that such incidents are generally hushed up unless they are
to be wilfully used against rivals.
These are not the only matters that school
principals and teachers are worried about. Traditional respect requires that
none can turn his/her back to the Quran. What is one to do in a classroom
packed with kids? As for wuzu: a majority of schools have no proper toilets or
clean water but, as is well known, none may touch the Quran without being
properly cleansed.
Using a disguised identity, a female
teacher wrote that proper cleansing is particularly problematic for female
schools — and even more for mixed schools. As per normal requirement no girl,
or teacher, may touch the holy book while menstruating. But the topic is so
tabooed that none dare mention it in front of students or higher ups. Could
this — rather than laziness — be why some female Quran schoolteachers were
unable to explain to the inspection teams their absence from class?
Paradoxically, the squads going from school
to school across Punjab are meant to check Quran-teaching standards but their
own members are deficient in an important way. SNC prescribes Quran teaching
with proper Tajweed (pronunciation)
of Arabic words. However, this is beyond the capacity of most Quran
schoolteachers in the area because they are rarely able to pronounce the
letters ‘Qaf’ and ‘A’in’ as in Arabic.
Exceptions are madrasa graduates who spend
their lives honing the skill of accurate recitation. Thus, if the Tajweed requirement is to be fulfilled,
logically such persons will have to be inducted as regular teachers. This runs
counter to emphatic denials made by the education minister, Shafqat Mahmood,
who claims that the existing school system is not being madrasa-ised.
What drove the Lahore High Court to issue
its orders so speedily? What was the urgency given a thousand other pending
complaints concerning property disputes, theft, fraud, child abuse, rape, and
murder? The answer is before us: ideologues in government have seized the reins
of power. As in Afghanistan, the population is now at their mercy.
It was not supposed to be this way. Recall
that Imran Khan’s SNC was initially advertised as means towards equal
opportunities for the rich and poor, regular schools and madrasas. And — this
is the most unbelievable part — also about raising the quality of education.
So, are we about to see magistrates with armed guards inspecting school
laboratories and frequency of science practicals? Checking if libraries are
adequately stocked or that toilets are in working condition? Will these squads
tell 25 million out-of-school children where to find schools and teachers? Hell
is likely to freeze over before that happens.
The fortunate among us will recall school
days as being carefree and filled with joy, laughter, and play. This is how it
is in much of the world, and this is what every child should have.
Afghanistan’s children are not so fortunate and now the children of Naya
Pakistan are beset with similar misfortune.
Grim-faced magistrates swooping down upon
schools, destroying the authority of teachers and school principals, and
putting terror into the hearts of all is a disgrace to the notion of education.
It may not end here. How we dress, speak, and think is going to be increasingly
policed. Imran Khan’s Pakistan is racing down the path to Talibanisation.
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Pervez Hoodbhoy is an Islamabad-based physicist and
writer.
Source: The
Dawn.com
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/the-war-islam/religious-policing-quran-mutawwa-pakistan/d/125911