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This site has been following efforts by President Musharraf of Pakistan to reform Islam. Today we see another, mostly favorable, report:
Pakistan says it has resolved a dispute with religious schools and they will now register with the government.
President Pervez Musharraf enforced his registration demand following the London bombings in July and also said all foreign students must be expelled.
The madrassas had refused to co-operate unless a demand that they disclose their funding be withdrawn.
A senior religious affairs ministry spokesman told the BBC the madrassas would not need to disclose funding.
President Pervez Musharraf says his registration policy is aimed at checking the activities of a handful of madrassas that preach hatred and extremism.
...Details were not disclosed but the religious affairs ministry spokesman said the madrassas would only have to submit their annual financial report at the end of every year.
An official statement said the two sides agreed to register nearly 13,000 Islamic seminaries by the deadline of 31 December.
...[Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz] said the government wanted to discourage teaching which developed negative tendencies and hatred, and led to sectarianism and terrorism.
Such practices, Mr Aziz said, were against the teachings of Islam.
This is a big win: the madrassas will register with the government of Pakistan, and will submit an annual financial report.
It's fascinating that the madrassas refuse to discose their sources of funding.
Most people who provide funding to other religious institutions are proud to do so, and frequently do so publicly. It appears to be evidence of ill-intention on the part of the madrassas and those funding them, that the madrassas wish to keep their sources of funding secret.
Earlier this week, Daniel Pipes wrote in praise of Musharraf.
..Lauding Jewish groups in the United States, Mr. Musharraf remarked that they "were at the forefront in opposing the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia," adding: "I am told that the largest contributor to the Bosnian cause was the Jewish-American businessman and philanthropist, George Soros."
Most news coverage of the Musharraf speech focused on the prospect of Pakistan opening diplomatic relations with Israel (Reuters: "Pakistan leader urges US Jews to help make peace"), but what is potentially of lasting importance about the Musharraf address – beyond the mere fact of its being delivered to a Jewish organization – was the president's respectful, accurate, and constructive comments about Jews.
He began with the important observation that Jews and Muslims "have many similarities and few divergences in their faith and culture," then listed three specifics: belief in the oneness of God, shared ways of greeting, and a common phrase in the Talmud and Koran. And Moses, he pointed out, is the prophet most often referred to in the Koran.
...Mr. Musharraf's reaching out to Jews is part of a much broader project of developing what he calls "Enlightened Moderation" in Islam. Although until now more talk than action, even the talk is a major achievement. Sadly, only he and one other Muslim leader, King Abdullah II of Jordan, are articulating a moderate version of Islam, but at least those two are doing so.
For his efforts, Mr. Musharraf deserves appreciation and encouragement.
History is unpredictable. Who would have thought a leader of Islamic reformation would come to power in the midst of a hotbed of Islamofascism, such as Pakistan?
And yet -- that's exactly where such a leader is most needed.
The policies of GWB are to be given credit. Per Victor Davis Hanson:
Two-thirds of Al Qaeda are scattered. Bin Laden's popularity is waning, as it always does in the Middle East when former romantic killers remain incognito, cannot come out of hiding, and resort to issuing stale videos. It is hard to account for the end of Libyan and Pakistani nuclear trafficking, of Syrians in Lebanon, or of unquestioned dictatorship in Egypt, without the prior American resolve to remove Saddam.
