HindustanTimes.com

Monday, September 8, 2003

Foreign students flee Pakistan's seminaries

Agence France-Presse
Karachi, September 8

Foreign students are leaving Pakistan's madrassas in droves for fear of
arrest under the Government crack-down against Islamic extremism, a seminary
official said.

"Pakistan is no longer a safe place for foreign students studying in our
(Islamic seminaries)," Mufti Mohammad Jamil, spokesman for the Federation of
Madrassas told AFP.

"About 500 have already moved to South Africa in a year, others are also
planning to pack their bags,"  he said.

The students, most of whom hail from Arab and African nations, were
reluctant to leave Pakistan but feared they could be arrested in the name of
Al-Qaeda, Jamil said.

"They used to feel Pakistan was their second home, but not anymore," said
Jamil.

"Pakistan now looks like an American colony," he added.

There are around 10,000 religious schools registered with Wifaq-ul-Madaris
central board of seminaries, which prepares syllabi and holds examinations,
but another 10,000 are thought to run independently in rural and remote
tribal areas -- particularly along the Afghan border.

Islamic clerics say thousands of foreign nationals from Muslim countries
annually seek admission to the seminaries in Pakistan but have been denied
visas under strict policies by the Government of President Pervez Musharraf,
which considers the madrassas laboratories for Islamic extremism.

© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2003.
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