Muslim countries have become much more conservative this past decade.One can observe this trend just by walking down a street in most Muslim cities. Compared to the 1970’s, these days a much larger percentage of women are wearing the hijab (headscarf).The growing influence of fundamentalist Muslims over moderates is directly related to the increase in the number of madrassahs (Islamist seminaries) and consequently the increase in Islamic terrorism.
One of the driving forces behind the fundamentalist agenda is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its funding of madrassahs.For the past 30 years the number of madrassahs has increased exponentially not only in countries in the Middle East but especially in Pakistan and Indonesia which have the largest population of Muslims in the world.Parents are attracted to send their kids to madrassahs because they are free, provide shelter, and discipline students.Madrassahs are usually much better equipped than public schools in poor countries such as Pakistan.
Unfortunately students in madrassahs only get a religious education and do not learn any useful subjects for the real world such as math and science.Once they graduate from a madrassah there are not many choices other than becoming an Islamic scholar.Besides not having any useful knowledge, madrassah students have been brainwashed with reactionary ideas and seek to proselytize moderate Muslims often with violence to follow their way.It would be easy for a madrassah student to be recruited to take up arms against democratic and western ideas since these are perceived as a threat to their strict interpretation of Islam.
For the United States to limit the quantity of Islamic radicals in the world it must take steps to reform madrassahs and find ways to offer alternative education.First of all the United States must pressure Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Muslim countries to reform madrassahs and limit funding to madrassahs teaching radical forms of Islam such as Salafism.There are also wealthy Middle Eastern companies and individuals that fund radical madrassahs.They must be encouraged to redirect their funding to useful infrastructure projects that help the economic well being of their fellow Muslims.
Second, the United States and the European Union must work directly with international humanitarian organizations and governments in countries such as Pakistan and Indonesia to improve local education so that parents get a good secular alternative to madrassahs.
Third, the United States and the European Union must help the economies of poor Muslim countries.One way would be to loosen agricultural subsidies and import restrictions so that agricultural economies of countries such as Pakistan and Indonesia have better access to Western markets and thus obtain better prices for their agricultural exports.
As long as the West remains ignorant to the propagation of madrassahs in the Muslim world it will suffer the future consequences of brainwashed Islamic radicals taking up arms and spreading their reactionary ideas throughout the world.
