Indian state bans government-run Islamic schools from teaching religious scriptures

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All government-run Islamic schools in Assam, known locally as madrasas, will be converted in April, state Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma confirmed on Wednesday.

In a speech to local politicians the same day, Sarma positioned the law as a measure to empower the Muslim community. He said it would ensure “the right to an equal education for all children and facilitate the path to higher education.”

The madrassas offer a teaching system in which students are taught about the Qur’an and Islamic history along with general subjects such as mathematics and science.

According to the 2011 government census, Muslims represent 34.22% of the total population of Assam.

Once the law is passed, the madrassas will become “secular schools” that will not teach students about the Qur’an, officials said.

Opposition politicians have criticized the measure, claiming it reflects the hardening of anti-Muslim attitudes in the Hindu-majority country.

The main leader of the state opposition, Debabrata Saikia, claimed that the new law was passed by the BJP to “consolidate more Hindu votes”.

“It’s a polarization tactic,” Saikia said. “(The BJP) is trying to do it officially. There is no need for a law.”

Opposition politicians from the Congress Party of India and the Democratic Front from all over India organized an outing during the discussion of the bill.

According to the president of the Madrassa d’Assam Board of Education, Imran Hussain, some 700 schools will be affected.

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“If parents have sent their children to madrasas just for theological studies, they may have a problem,” Hussain said. “But I believe in a good education and, if students receive a general education, it will be good. It does not underestimate the (Muslim) community. It is not a policy directed against Muslims.

“I hope that with the new law (the government) will intensify the infrastructure in the madrassas.”

Religious discrimination in Assam became a topic of debate last year when nearly 2 million people in the state of 33 million were not included in the country’s National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Proponents of the registry argued that the NRC would leak illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. But critics criticized the measure, saying it was an attempt by the BJP to target the Muslim population of the state that had been there for generations, but they were unable to prove it with the required documentation.

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