Madrasas in India with foreign teachers are actively misleading youth: MHA report

NEW DELHI: Some madrasas in India with foreign teachers are actively radicalising youngsters, while those having Indian Muslim teachers are not nurseries of terrorism, says a report with the Modi government.

The report, based on a discreet survey by a group of security and intelligence agencies of madrasas across the country over a year, has been submitted to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, EThas learnt.

The report raises a red flag on madrasas that have teachers of Bangladeshi or Pakistani nationality, saying there are examples of them actively radicalising young Muslims. It says a close eye needs to be kept on madrasas in border states because the “main danger” comes from foreign teachers employed there.

A reference is made to recent revelations from Bengal, where Bangladeshi nationals were radicalising Indian Muslims in two madrasas into committing acts of terror for the Jamaat-ul-Mujahedeen Bangladesh.

The report’s findings are significant in light of a statement by PM Modi in September that injustice was being done to Indian Muslims by considering them possible recruits for terror activities. “If anyone thinks Indian Muslims will dance to their ( Al-Qaeda) tune, they are delusional.

Indian Muslims will live for India, die for India — they will not want anything bad for India,” Modi had said in an interview in September.

This report could be a trigger for the government to initiate its poll promise of a national madrasa modernisation programme.

The BJP’s manifesto had said that the party will reform minority educational systems, dovetailing them with modern requirements.