The madrasa that just grew (and not a radical in sight)

‘When articles mentioned madrasas, readers were led to infer that all schools so-named are anti-American, anti-Western, pro-terrorist centres having less to do with teaching basic literacy and more to do with political indoctrination.” So claimed the Yale Center for Globalisation in June last year. I am tempted to agree: When some commentators claimed (wrongly, it turns out) that Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for the US presidency, attended a madrasa, it was a cause for concern for a wide swath of American public opinion.

The Department of Communities and Local Government in the UK is currently carrying out a review of training for Muslim faith leaders. Naturally, this relates to the various madrasas in Britain. The concern, it seems, is that these madrasas are not training their graduates sufficiently well for the needs of British society.

I do not know how this review is going to work out, and I tend to keep my appraisal of such reviews to a cautious minimum until everything is clear at the end, but when asked about it, I was reminded that many in the European public sphere are suspicious of Muslim religious institutions. Indeed, many in the Muslim world are suspicious.

For some, these are hotbeds of extremism (although all the documentary evidence suggests that radicalism affects no more than a tiny proportion of madrasas). For others, these institutions simply do not prepare their graduates properly and are essentially useless. They would prefer these institutions to prepare their graduates to become doctors, engineers or businessmen.

At Jenderam, in Malaysia, I found a madrasa that turned all these assumptions on their heads. It was begun around 20 years ago by Sheikh Hafidh, an economics graduate from the University of Malaya, and now attracts doctors, engineers and businessmen from Kuala Lumpur to study there. I met one engineer from Kuala Lumpur who regularly travels for two hours to go to Jenderam to study the Islamic sciences. I found high powered executives there who came to donate money for the orphanage, and remained for one of the lessons conducted by Sheikh Hafidh.

The model of Jenderam is an interesting one. The sheikh realised early that the modern world meant that many had extremely sophisticated skills, but not the corresponding religious education, while institutes of religious education were relatively unsophisticated. He tried to create one that would allow for people to fulfil their training, and for the training institution to benefit them. The engineer I mentioned contributes to the technical running of the equipment in Jenderam. The courses are run in a highly professional manner. The curriculum the sheikh introduced was defined by the classical seminaries in Hadhramawt, Yemen (the main source of Islamic teachings in southeast Asia for centuries), which tend to teach canonical law, sacred scripture, theology, logic (a staple part of most good madrasas) and good manners, among other things. In one of the buildings, I noticed a computer lab, and wondered if they also archived their lessons like a college: some of those subjects (such as pedagogical logic) certainly deserve to be taught beyond the madrasa.

People began to want to come to this institution and stay for a while, so a hotel opened up in the grounds. Others decided they did not want to visit, but turn Jenderam into their “home away from home”: they bought land adjoining the madrasa, and built houses. And with people, came needs: so shops began to open up for clothes, groceries and a bakery. I had some of the best bread I have ever tasted from that bakery. Where else can you get fresh bread with coconut paste in the middle? (Yes, I know it sounds odd, but have some imagination and you won’t be disappointed.)

But this madrasa was part of a wider movement: a revival of Islamic spirituality. And Islamic spirituality does not exist solely in Jenderam – so the madrasa opened up a travel agent, through which people can visit Indonesia, Syria, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. The prices did not seem half bad either.

With spirituality comes the need for personal training – one-on-one education. In traditional Muslim societies, looking after two groups of people in particular is rewarded and respected: orphans and elders. In Jenderam there is a successful orphanage and an old people’s home. Sheikh Hafidh and his students use their contacts throughout Malaysian society to solicit consistent contributions to provide for both.

For the madrasa, the presence of old and young is doubly rewarding: children learn how to respect their elders properly through proper interaction with the elderly residents, hence moving them closer to understanding how to apply the theoretical lessons of good manners in real life situations. The children go to public schools in the mornings from the age of seven, but in the afternoon they attend the madrasa, with the madrasa their recognised guardian: it continues to care for them while the rest of society seems to have forgotten.

This place has resisted being publicly funded, so that they can continue with the agenda they have dedicated themselves to – and so far, they have earned the respect of a wide coterie of officials and literati. It is certainly a diffferent type of madrasa from what I have learnt to expect – and the bread really is good. Dr HA Hellyer is the Director of the Visionary Consultants Group and a Fellow of the University of Warwick