The concept of funding a competing system of madrassahs that preach non-violent Islam is excellent. The first problem would be getting the U.S. to fund such an "outside the box" idea; the second problem would be staffing, and the third would be protecting them from the inevitable attacks of the competition.
I don’t think the US would ever fund it, unless we could maintain a degree of control that would render the whole system ineffective. Private funding would be a possibility: a great deal could be done with a fairly modest amount.
If funding were available, staffing would not be that great a problem, I think.
The attacks of the competition are of course a real issue. I can think offhand of two ways to deal with this. First, the institutions should not be set up, at least initially, smack in the middle of high conflict areas. You want to focus first on those hovering between, not on trying to re-convert those already won over to the dark side. Second, I don’t see these institutions trying to pose a direct challenge to those on the opposite side. I don’t think it would be a good idea to aggressively preach non-violent Islam, or to directly challenge the radicals. The emphasis would be on theologically rigorous but apolitical religious eductaion, and quality education in other fields. The bait to parents would be that we are trying to provide children with an Islamic education that will prepare them to enter the learned professions on terms equal to anyone anywhere. I think this has nearly universal appeal to parents.
The goal is to produce a new generation of leaders for areas in which all existing leadership forms are hopelessly compromised. Trying to indoctrinate these leaders, to tell them what to think, will not be effective. What I want to do is to give them the tools of critical thought, the tools that will allow them to move in a more progressive direction. |
