Southeast Asian scholars want state support for madrasas

Muslim scholars in Southeast Asia urged governments on Thursday to provide Islamic schools with books on local history, culture and customs to check the growing influence of Arab radicalism.
Western security officials fear the madrasas, which mainly rely on foreign teaching material, could be a breeding ground for militancy after some people behind attacks in Europe and the United States attended them in the Middle East.
"We're alienating our children from our history, culture and sense of nationalism because we're not producing enough books and materials for our madrasas," Salipada Tamano, a professor of Islamic Studies in the Philippines, told Reuters.
"It doesn't surprise me if our children were more oriented to Islamic teaching from the Middle East because we've been getting most of our reading materials and our Arabic teachers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Libya."
He was speaking on the margins of a conference on Islamic preaching and moderation in the Asean region in Manila, attended by scholars from around Southeast Asia.
The Philippines has around 2,000 madrasas, relying on material and financial support from local communities and donations from wealthy Islamic states and organisations in the Middle East.
Talib Benito of the King Faisal Centre for Islamic, Arabic and Asian Studies on the southern island of Mindanao said local madrasas were suffering from inadequate financial support, irrelevant curriculum and lack of organisation. "We're actually producing half-baked Muslims, lacking in both technical competence and commitment to Islamic values and faith," Benito told the forum.
Around 10 percent of the 86 million Philippine population is Muslim, largely based in the south. The Muslim community in the Philippines has been seeking greater autonomy from the largely Catholic central government in a conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people in 30 years.
Tamano said local Islamic schools play an important role in screening radical and extremist ideas from outside the region by raising the standards of teaching, improving facilities and providing incentives to skilled and competent teachers.
"We want to make sure to produce Muslim moderates who can easily find jobs and become productive citizens rather than potential criminals and terrorists," Tamano added.