BY KEVIN CORBIN
The Fajr call to prayer echoes over darkness in Jolo, a city in the Philippine’s conflict-affected Muslim Mindanao region. People slowly emerge from small makeshift homes with corrugated metal roofs just before sunrise and head to the mosque for the first prayer of the day.
Connected to the mosque is an Islamic school, called a madrasah. One of the world’s oldest documented education venues has also become a target for the recruitment of young recruits, easily radicalized by extremist groups and equipped to support their violent efforts. This article explores common perspectives on madrasahs, specifically looking at those located in the conflict-affected southern Philippines Mindanao region, balanced by the views of those living and working in this region. Further, this paper reacts to a very real and current issue impacting the Philippines and the world writ large, regarding counterterrorism and violent extremism.
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Armed violence and religious extremism are both on an alarming upward trajectory in the southern Philippines’ Muslim Mindanao region, increasing particularly over the last five years. The latest incidents and incursions differentiate themselves from prior decades of conflict by having documented linkages and affiliations to transnational terrorism and terror cells.
While the Philippines has worked to counter violent extremism, these incidents point to setbacks, which have resulted in tragic ramifications for the majority of Mindanaons trying to live peacefully in the area. Paralyzed by violence, death, displacement and crippled by struggling basic human services systems, they live in a state of extreme poverty juxtaposed by economic growth and progress elsewhere in Asia.
Acts of armed conflict like those above have contributed to a growing global security and aid movement anxious to identify hotbeds of fundamentalism in hopes of preventing or countering violent extremism at their sources.
Under close scrutiny are Islamic schools – viewed by some as sites for radicalization, extremism and violence; and, by others as venues for education and peace. Blamed for many ills, these educational settings are often remote, poorly funded, and out of reach of traditional monitoring. Further, they often rebuke standard public education curricula, making them even more remote from public systems.
Madrasah education carries many different definitions throughout the world. In the post-9/11 western media, the madrasah is often defined negatively, posited as radically extreme, anti-American, and advancers of Wahhabi and similar religious Salafi movements. While polarizing, those definitions are typically referring to isolated cases or examples that connect violent extremists back to a specific madrasah or to a community supported by an Islamic school. However, in most Muslim communities and in most academic circles, the word madrasah is translated from Arabic language simply to mean ‘school’ (Armanios, 2003; Bergen and Pandey, 2006). Madrasahs can fall anywhere on a continuum from a place for teaching Islamic values and Arabic language to a location for an entire primary and secondary school education.
The Philippines Context
The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), a region within Mindanao, Philippines, is where most of the country’s madrasahs exist (estimated at 1,000 in Mindanao), but is also where the country’s heaviest conflict and violent extremism occurs, also comprising most of the nation’s poorest communities.
Protracted conflict and fragility have disrupted basic human services and systems in BARMM for decades, eroding societies and creating generations of fragile communities that are undereducated, underemployed, and disconnected from the social contract. Contributing to the conflict is one of Southeast Asia’s most violent jihadist terror groups, the Abu Sayyaf Group, which uses the complex system of jungles, islands, swamps in the region as safe harbor for illegal activities. Over the last 15 years, the group has kidnapped and held for ransom many foreigners and locals. A video of the beheading of two Canadians in 2016 signaled the group’s allegiance to global terror efforts aligned with the IS and Al-Qaeda movements. In 2013, a group of insurgents invaded Zamboanga City, a southern city in Mindanao, creating a humanitarian crisis and displacing over 100,000 people. Years later, in one of the northern areas, Marawi City, insurgents affiliated with Islamic State, repeated the effort, creating a 5-month long conflict against the government of the Philippines (Armed Forces of the Philippines – AFP), resulting in a presidential declaration of martial law for the Mindanao region. These acts threaten the existing resources that are tapped for the area, disrupting government and non-government interventions and private sector investment. Businesses considering investments in the region are scared away from these incidents as they indicate instability.
Madrasahs in the Philippines
Madrasahs take on several different forms, including a traditional (weekend) madrasah; a developmental madrasah; and, a standard private madrasah.
Traditional madrasahs are religious in nature, with attendance mainly on weekends. They generally imply that children would attend public school during the week, then use a Traditional madrasah for Islamic values and Arabic language lessons.
Standard private madrasahs have been integrated into the national and regional Departments of Education. Standard private Madaris operate in alignment with DepED Order No. 51, s. 2004, using a Standard Curriculum for Elementary Public Schools and private Madaris.
These madrasahs are considered mainstreamed into the formal public-school system and the order created by DepED to establish a smooth transfer of students from other madrasahs to standard private madrasahs or public schools; to unify Muslim Filipinos; and, to promote national identity, while preserving Muslims’ cultural heritage (DepED Order 51, s.2004).
Three Current and Common Perspectives about Madrasah education:
To better understand Madrasahs in the Philippines, let’s look at three common narratives and their counterpoints:
Perspective One: By teaching ultra conservative beliefs, Madrasahs act as incubators for radicalization and factories of global jihad.
Under this view, the madrassah is viewed as an Islamic values and education venue at the community level that has existed for thousands of years, shaping the spiritual thought of Muslims. During that time, they have taken on numerous roles and responsibilities within mainly Muslim communities. Though there are many different types of madrasah, they are often generalized as venues that mainly transfer Islamic values and Arabic language to Muslim children that don’t attend public schools. Existing outside of the public-school system, they typically do not receive financial or human resources from national governments. In some cases as a consequence, and in other cases by design, madrasahs often do not adhere to standard national education curricula used in public schools, and, therefore, can in fact be viewed as limiting the perspective, exposure and view of students that attend them.
This general narrative is well-supported by official government representatives, media, and other players with influence on public opinion. They often assert that these schools are created and funded by Islamic fundamentalists, and as such, that at the expense of a true education – a human right protected by international policies – madrassas can be co-opted to instill ideological extremism and violence.
The belief has reached high levels within the US government. Former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, said “Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?” in 2003. Soon after, in 2004, a report issues by the National Commission of Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States described the madrassa as “…the only opportunity available for an education, but some have been used as incubators for violent extremism” Imtiaz (2011) believes that the radical socialization and economic deprivations that exist in fragile Muslim communities lead the madrasah graduates to religious extremism.
A counterpoint perspective: Madaris are supplying critical access to basic education (math; science; reading) for children in remote areas, often that would have little to no access to public schools. In the Philippines, children often live in very remote areas, out of reach from the public-school system. Madaris provide education to children that would not otherwise receive an education. Without these, albeit simple education centers, children would be out of school and more vulnerable to abuse, radicalization, and other social exposures.
Asked about this, Undersecretary Alzad Sattar from the Department of Education’s Bureau of Madrasah Education, said that “the madrasah in Mindanao is doing critical work in the world of education, providing those in remote areas with fundamental lessons in many of the same subject matter found in public schools.”
As the Usec states, madrasahs in Mindanao are currently going through a process of adopting a standard curriculum that aligns with public schools, providing a pathway to basic education for children that attend and graduate from madaris, which leads to another common assumption.
Perspective Two: Madrasahs don’t follow public-school curricula and use Islamic values and Arabic language as tools to limit access to democratic worldviews
A common belief is that madaris don’t provide basic education (math; science; reading) and rather focus on Islamic values and Arabic language. By focusing only on these aspects, young minds can be sculpted to be conservative.
Further, the remoteness of madaris often means that children and youth do not have access to media or information from outside of their community. By controlling the information and knowledge that is shared in the madrasah, these educators can create a culture of radical views that are unchallenged by outside information, and thus, is an environment that is ripe for radicalization.
A counterpoint perspective: The Philippines has been consistently assisting madaris throughout Mindanao in adopting standard curricula that aligns with the public-school system. Ina Aquino, long-time development worker in Mindanao and current Chief of Party of USAID’s flagship national education program, says that “madrasahs using the Arabic Language and Islamic Values Education (ALIVE) [curriculum] gives students in madaris the same quality of basic education as public schools”. This means that kids coming from madrasahs can also easily transfer to public school or college down the road, giving them greater options and mobility.
Usec Sattar agrees, says that it works because “the curriculum and textbooks have been contextualized to suit the situation, belief, and culture of the Bangsamoro people and aligned with the national standards”. Guided by this, madaris are increasingly being integrated into the formal education system, providing them with financial and technical support.
Perspective Three: The madrasah is a venue to counter violent extremism (CVE)
Governments, NGOs, and even mosques are increasingly viewing the madrasah as a venue to provide support, programs, and information campaigns to prevent the radicalization of children and youth and to counter violent extremism.
As resources have been pumped into military efforts against violent extremist groups (VEGs) and NGOs have supported multi-faith camps, many groups are now turning to religious leaders and those within madrasahs to support CVE efforts. With captive students and moderately supportive parents (who generally voice wanting peace in the region), madrasahs do present a clear opportunity to reach Muslim children and youth with additional support and information.
A counterpoint perspective: There generally appears to be wide support and agreement with this perspective. Zenaida Naga, Marawi School President and Founder of the NGO HOPE Healthcare Institute, Inc., said that, “The Madrasah is an excellent place to help children and youth know about their rights to peace and security in Mindanao!”. She said that people in Mindanao just want to live peacefully and that it’s only a few that have corrupted and violent minds.
Therésa (Teré) Mokamed, Deputy Chief of Party for the Mindanao Youth for Development Program (MYDev), agrees, saying that “children have a right to be children, not tools for violence and conflict…we need to ensure that all children can enjoy this right and madrasahs can be a part of that solution”.
Madrasahs are under close examination by the world’s counterterrorism community. Are they adding to the problem or can they be part of the solution?
Many perspectives that are thriving in the media which depict madrasahs as places for learning Arabic language, Islamic values, and in some cases, religious radicalization. This form of radicalization, in this context, is correlated to violent extremism, however the evidence is light.
In fact, the government, NGO, and development workers closest to madrasahs view them as basic, community-level educational bodies that, when aligned with public-school approaches, can offer children and youth that would otherwise go without schooling, an opportunity for an education.
For more information about the role of madrasahs in the Philippines, see Undersecretary Alzad Sattar’s article in the Rappler, ‘Madasah is not a breeding ground for extremism’ at https://www.rappler.com/nation/211581-madrasah-no-breeding-ground-extremism-philippines.