ABSTRACT
Consensus on deep determinants of terrorism eludes us even as Islamic religious schools are widely cited as important contributors to extremism. Nowhere have these statements been more strongly applied than to Pakistan, where religious schools — commonly known as madrasas — were responsible for educating the leadership of the Taliban during the 1980s. In recent years these schools have been called ‘factories of jihad’ and are commonly believed to churn out extremists by the millions. While discussions about Pakistani madrasas are deemed central to the war on terror, two distinct issues remain difficult to resolve: First, do madrasas, through their teaching and training, create terrorists by indoctrinating their students in a particular worldview? Second, are parents increasingly sending the vast majority of their children to madrasas?
