A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Pack your bags and move here ? |
|---|
| BroHanif |
| 02/21/03 at 07:25:00 |
| Excellant, may the brothers/sisters be successful in this venture. .................................................................................................................... http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,900086,00.html Building for an Islamic future Pakistan's most powerful Islamists plan to construct a new city dedicated to learning under traditional Islamic law. Rory McCarthy reports from Lahore Friday February 21, 2003 Pakistan's most powerful Islamist party, the Jamaat-e Islami, is working on an ambitious plan to build its own town, a model community living under Islamic values. The Jamaat is well-organised and led by the intellectuals of the religious right. It has long been discounted as an extreme minority, but in the months after September 11 a rising tide of anti-American feeling in Pakistan meant its support began to increase. In general elections last October the party did surprisingly well. As the leading member of a rare alliance of Islamic parties, it won control over two of Pakistan's four provincial parliaments and emerged as a significant force in the national assembly in Islamabad. Suddenly the party is a force to be reckoned with. Sayyid Abul-Ala Mawdudi, a journalist and cleric from Hyderabad in India, founded the party in 1941 with a vision of creating an elite, disciplined holy community of the devout. He believed their leadership could reform society and bring the return of Muslim ascendancy. All political, social and economic life was to come under divine Islamic law. It was radical thinking that went on to inspire Islamist movements across the Muslim world. But over the years, pragmatism invaded the party's philosophy and the idea of the holy community began to fade. Winning elections became more important. The Jamaat does operate a small community, in Mansurah, on the outskirts of Lahore. A few hundred people live in a large, peaceful compound which contains the Jamaat's offices, a large mosque, several small schools and a hospital. Now the party has far grander plans. Jamaat's new city will be called Qurtuba, a "city of knowledge" that will focus on education. The party has bought 2,000 acres of land in an open area of countryside about 30 minutes drive south Islamabad. Here it plans to build primary and secondary schools, undergraduate colleges and postgraduate study centres. There will be mosques, libraries, gymnasiums and playing fields. The party has begun to sell plots of land for people to build their own homes in the community. A large plot sells for 500,000 rupees (£5,500) and there are now 5,000 on offer, with plans to increase that to 10,000 in the future. Houses will be separated into different sectors, each with their own mosque and leisure facilities. Many of the plots have been bought by ex-pat Pakistanis living in Britain, Europe or the US. Of course the new community will follow the Jamaat's strict religious code. The party believes all women should at the very least cover their hair, if not their faces as well. In all the schools and colleges, boys and girls will be taught separately and there will be separate male and female halls of residence. The party insists its aim at Qurtuba is to tackle the enormous problem of education in Pakistan. "Basically it is an education city that we want to build," said Liaqat Baloch, one of the Jamaat's most senior leaders. "If people want to come and live there we will give them every facility." Education in Pakistan is indeed at a crisis point. At least 40 percent of the population (even more for women) is illiterate. Government schools in Pakistan are frequently sub-standard and many teachers, who are poorly paid, never bother to attend. Private schools have flourished, but they are expensive. Madrassahs, or religious seminaries, offer a free education and they have also flourished. But the madrassahs focus entirely on a religious curriculum - frequently no more than teaching young boys to recite the Koran in Arabic, a language they do not understand. Mr Baloch said the Jamaat now regarded itself as a "political party under the guidance of sharia," rather than the holy community that Mawdudi first envisaged. But there is little doubt that the highly-organised Jamaat hopes that its radical new city will offer many Pakistanis an attractive alternative life under an Islamic value system, and will bring its promised Islamic revolution one step closer. |
| NS |
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board |