Pakistan's Madrassa Scandal, cont.

Secularist scholar Irfan Khawaja recently posted his reaction to allegations of child abuse in Pakistan's madrassas, an essay he describes as "an exploration of the implications" of the issue "if the charges turn out to be true."

Khawaja notes the numerous questions raised by these allegations, and wonders why Western journalists have taken so little interest in a story that could be "to Pakistan (and by extension to the Muslim world) what the analogous story was to the Catholic Church a few years ago -- or for that matter what Abu Ghraib has been for the US occupation of Iraq. Both of the latter scandals have permanently scarred the institutions responsible for producing them. The consequences of inflicting the same sorts of damage on the Pakistani madrasacracy are incalculable -- incalculably good, that is."

The charges, writes Khawaja, "give some perspective to Islamic fundamentalists' tedious habit of sermonizing at us about the supposed sexual dysfunctionality of 'the West' and the superior moral virtue of 'the Islamic East.'"

Citing incidents of gang rape in Punjab, mass rape in Darfur, female genital mutilation, and honor killings (among other matters), Khawaja believes that "it would appear to be time for our holier-than-thou sermonizers to introspect a bit."

Comments

[The Mullah Formerly Known as C]

Those religious instructors were tempted by the radiating sexuality of children who have been corrupted by evil western entertainment.

But even though it is not their fault, the teachers have been reassigned to different madrassas after receiving a stern letter of reprimand. We do take these allegations seriously, after all.

[Rimfax]

Gad! The Onion has gone all corporate on me. Otherwise, I'd have linked the article where the Pope forgives the evil little tempters and temptresses who seduced all those priests.

[Grant Gould]

Just remember, just like the clergy abuse scandal and the Abu Ghraib scandal, it was "just one or two bad apples." Nobody else's fault at all. A shame, really, how these bad apples keep turning up.

[Capt. Obvious]

The obvious reason that the West isn't interested in the madrassas is that we don't care, period. Many Westerners already view Islam as a corrupt/evil entity (fundy Xians and hardcore atheists), and don't really need the side story. "Our minds are made up!"

Many of the rest are intelligent enough to understand that reform must come from inside; anything that smacks of the West "imposing" values on Islam will just lead to a circling of the wagons.

In short, there isn't much for the West to do at this time. Call us when Muslims get with the shame-and-reform program.

[Douglas Fletcher]

"...reform must come from inside..."

I think I'd prefer it to just rot from the inside. Which is what I think is really happening anyway.