Fine Work,Darul Uloom Haqqania Madrasa!
"The world has seen their capabilities to run the country through their victories on both the diplomatic front and on the battlefield.""[The Taliban takeover could have been even bloodier; but they] would not repeat the mistakes of the 1990s.""We feel proud that our students in Afghanistan had first broken the Soviet Union and now sent the U.S. packing. It is an honour for the madrasa that its graduates are now ministers and hold high positions in the Taliban government.""I advise the international community to give a chance to the Taliban to run the country.""If they are not allowed to work there will be a new civil war in Afghanistan, and it will affect the entire region."Rashidul Haq Sami, vice-chancellor, Darul Uloom Haqqania madrasa, Pakistan
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| Photograph: New York Times |
One of Pakistan's largest, oldest religious seminaries boasts its pride at having educated great numbers of Taliban leaders. No other school in the world can boast of such an achievement. Its alumni hold key positions in the new government of Afghanistan. Of course there are differing perceptions altogether of what the institute has achieved; its critics insist on the other hand, that it is a university of jihad, responsible for sowing violence across the region for many years.
Those that are not associated with the school and skeptical of its claims, express their concern that such extremist madrasas along with the Islamist entities linked with them may now feel even greater entitlement to help feed further radicalism in Pakistan and beyond. And Pakistan has an absolute embarrassment of such schools of jihad; altogether over 30000 seminaries. Perhaps more troubling, they are under government control.
But the school argues it has changed; and that the Taliban must be given the opportunity to demonstrate in real time that they have moved beyond the gratuitous brutality that marked their first rule in Afghanistan two decades earlier. Which would, of necessity, require overlooking entirely the surge of violence that brought them to power. Reports of reprisal killings, limits on girls attending school, and brutal clampdowns on free expression have thus far distinguished the reborn Taliban in their Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Alumni of the Darul Uloom Haqqania situated some 100 kilometers from the border with Afghanistan founded the Taliban movement that ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s. The Pakistan military and its Inter-Services Intelligence agency work directly with the Taliban; training, arming, protecting them when the U.S.-led coalition sought to disband them and while the government of Pakistan portrayed itself as a
'partner' in the 'war against terrorism'.
"Being the alma mater of scores of Taliban leaders, Haqqania certainly commands their respect", noted Azmat Abbas, author of 'Madrasa Mirage: A Contemporary History of Islamic Schools in Pakistan'. The acting interior minister of Afghanistan is Sirajuddin Haqqani who led much of the Taliban's military efforts. There is a $5 million reward for his capture through the U.S. government. The higher education minister is Abdul Baqi Haqqani, the new foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, loyal alumni all.
Mr. Sami's father, known as the Father of the Taliban, was its previous chancellor, Samiul Haq. The Haqqani network is well known for its ferociously violent Islamist credentials. It wouldn't take much for it to turn against the government of Pakistan, but not as long as it has the approval and operates under the aegis of the government. The Haqqani Network, named after the madrasa, is the military wing of the Taliban. It is credited with taking American hostages, for suicide attacks, and for targeted assassinations.
Over four thousand students, primarily from poor rural families, attend the seminary comprised of a network of multistory buildings in a riverside town east of Peshawar. The memorization of the Quran comprises a major proportion of their education, along with Arabic literature. Pakistan society has its own version of the Taliban, as violent and potentially dangerous as is their Afghan counterpart, equally in the terrorist camps of jihad.
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Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, northwestern Pakistan (Bel Trew) |
Labels: Afghanistan, Fundamentalist Islamism, Pakistan, Taliban Scholars
posted by Pieface @ Monday, December 13, 2021
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