Continuing his strong stance against Islamic extremism, Pakistani President Musharraf this week announced that all foreign students, including those holding dual nationality in Pakistani religious schools, will be expelled from Pakistan. The measures come as Britain and other international power brokers place the President under increasing pressure to investigate Pakistani links to the July 7 London suicide attacks that killed 56 people.
“Any (foreigners) in the madrassas (religious schools)… will leave Pakistan. We will not issue visas to such people. We will not allow madrassas to be misused for extremism, hatred being projected in our society,” said Gen Musharraf, reported the BBC.
Mr Musharraf also outlined his desire to crack down on anti-Western hate speeches in mosques or in recordings. This latest initiative comes on top of the measures announced last Friday (July 29) in which all religious schools have been told to register with the Government before December.
The BBC reports that it is estimated that there are over 20,000 such schools in Pakistan, with some 1.7 million students attending the institutions. Mainly from predominantly poor and rural families the students are often sent there by parents who see the schools as a way out of poverty for their children.
Definitive Action
Mr Musharraf’s vocal stance against Islamic extremism has also been ensued by concrete action, with police arresting another 200 preachers and prayer leaders for delivering anti-Western sermons and sectarian hatred. This brought the number of those in custody to 800 since the President began his clean-up two weeks ago.
But many correspondents are sceptical about the validity of the push against extremist elements, citing the original crackdown in 2002 had little impact upon the militant schools and did not address the fact that the more militant students work at unregulated madrassas that have survived previous crackdowns.
The Hindu Times reported that in response to such queries General Musharraf stated that three years ago Pakistan was a different place, economically it was not stable and Pakistan was engaged in a 10-month-old stand-off with India.
Instead he argued that to truly combat terrorist cells like al-Qaeda, one must first deal with the fundamental causes of the anger – poverty and negligible education.
“It may be a long-term strategy, but what I am saying is to kill this phenomenon, which is a state of mind. But to attack the phenomenon in the mind, the whole world has to act to resolve political disputes and social issues. The sooner it is understood, the better for the entire world.”
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