Madrassa

From Wikinfo

The word madrassa in the Arabic language means "school". The word can also appear transliterated as madrasa, as madrash, or as madressa. Typically it refers to an Islamic school for Muslims. It resembles a parochial school or a yeshiva, but with the purpose of teaching children about the religion of Islam.

Both males and females attend madrassas: they sit in separate classes to learn in an Islamic context. A madrassa typically offers two courses of study, a "hifz" course to memorize the Qur'an and become a hafiz, and an Alim course to become a scholar or mullah. A regular curriculum includes learning Arabic, Qur'an memorization and interpretation, Islamic law, hadith, and the history of Islam. Depending on the individual madrassa, it may teach additional courses like Arabic literature, English, science and history.

People of a variety of ages attend, and many often move on to becoming imams and sheikhs. A mullah typically requires more than 12 years of study. Many huffaz, or people who memorize the entire Qur'an, come from madrassas. Some madrassas resemble colleges, where people take afternoon classes and some reside in dormitories.

An estimated 10,000 madrassas operate in Pakistan. A number also exist in North America and in Europe. The oldest madrassas still exist today in the Middle East. They take in orphans and poor children, and provide them with an education.

Recently, some people have come to see madrassas in a negative light, amid accusations that many of them indoctrinate students with extremist views. Some have accused extremist madrassas and "Deobandi seminaries" of fostering the Taliban's reactionary policies during its rule in Afghanistan. In reality almost 65 percent of the Taliban officials and workers at a lower level had never attended any religious school. Most of the faculty members at Kabul University graduated in the United States of America or in European countries and gained years of experience abroad.