San Diego Union-Tribune

October 10, 2001

A-1

Islamic schools teach fiery mix of religion, politics

By MARCUS STERN 
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE 

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Maulana Rafi-ullah sat on a carpet recently with a few of his students decrying what he described as the West's distorted view of Islam and Afghanistan's ruling Taliban party.

Rafi-ullah, the spiritual head of a religious school, described Islam as peaceful and the Taliban as the savior of Afghan society.

"The Taliban delivered peace, justice and security," he said, as the students listened in silent reverence. "They are a peaceful people."

The school that Rafi-ullah runs in the Hyat Abad area of Peshawar is part of a maturing network of madrassas, or religious schools, that spawned the Taliban and is forging generations of potential Islamic holy warriors through a fiery mix of religion and politics.

Afghan refugees pouring into Pakistan after the Soviet occupation in 1979 were destitute. Religious political parties based in refugee camps were used to distribute humanitarian aid.

"You had to join one of these groups to survive," said Gulzar Khan, former commissioner for refugees in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province.

The religious parties, with money from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, set up madrassas for children, including Afghanistan's many war orphans during the 1980s and 1990s. Through the schools, children could get food, shelter, clothing, medicine and education.

But they received more than the physical benefits.

"They come out of the madrassas with a world view," Gulzar said.

That world view encompasses a global commitment to Islamic struggles, including armed conflicts in the Middle East, Kashmir, Chechnya, Bosnia and Afghanistan, he said.

The new religious ideology is a harsher, more militant brand of Islam than Afghans practiced before the Soviet occupation, forged by two decades of outside aggression, displacement, poverty, famine, disease and civil war.

When the Taliban emerged as a military force in 1994, it was hoped by those who backed it, including Pakistan, that it would clear the way for a civilian government. But once the Taliban gained control of most of Afghanistan -- it took the capital city of Kabul in 1996 -- it retained firm military, religious and political control of the country.

This had the effect of further radicalizing the madrassas.

"We must protect Islam," Rafi-ullah said before the United States launched its anticipated attacks on Afghanistan. With some of his 80 students sitting with legs crossed or crouching at his side, he added, "We are ready to sacrifice our money, our property and even our lives. We will support movements all over the world seeking the supremacy of Islam."

Rafi-ullah declined to answer when asked if his students would join the ranks of the Taliban.

But his interview and his willingness to allow journalists inside his school and its mosque for a couple of hours was a rare opportunity. Madrassas generally are off limits to journalists for religious reasons, and because it is felt the Western media paint a dark portrait of the schools.

Rafi-ullah and others at the school said the West wrongly equates madrassas with the Taliban and Islamic holy war with terrorism.

"In Islam, there is no place for terrorism," Rafi-ullah said. "We teach peace and justice. You label us terrorists because we wear beards and turbans."

Holy war, he said, is waged only when Islam is under threat from outside aggression, repression or injustice. It does not target innocents or noncombatants.

Echoing most of those interviewed in Pakistan during the last few weeks, Rafi-ullah said the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were the work of Israel, not Muslims. That view, for which no credible evidence is offered, is widely espoused within the Muslim world.

The Sept. 11 attacks were terrorism, he said. But Islamic struggles in Kashmir against India, in the Middle East against Israel, in Chechnya against Russia, and, now, against the United States in Afghanistan -- these, he said, are holy wars, or jihads.

The boys living at the school range in age from 7 to 22. They sat in the mosque this day rocking and reading from the Koran. A group of men who had come to the mosque to continue their education of Islam stood nearby.

"We don't force Islam on others," said Mahab Sharib, 42. "We believe that if you are educated about Islam, it will enter your heart."

He said Islam's strict code of conduct -- forbidding drugs, alcohol and the mixing of men and women -- has produced a stronger social fabric than found in the West, where alcoholism, drug addiction, sexually transmitted diseases and broken families are an increasing problem.

"We are learning from the West about technology, computers and medicine," he said. "Why don't you learn about the benefits of Islam?"