Modernizing Madrassas

If you had to imagine what an ayatollah looked like, you’d probably envision someone who looks a lot like Ayatollah Asif Mohseini. He’s a 76-year-old with a creased face, generous white beard, and a tightly-wound turban. Mohseini is the one of Afghanistan’s leading religious figures. When I got in line to see him last week, he was conducting one of the time-honored functions of an ayatollah: answering the religious questions of the faithful. His offices were packed with supplicants seeking answers to questions ranging from, What are suitable prayers to say when caught in rush hour traffic jams?, to literary discussions of Koranic verses.

I was surprised to discover, then, that Mohseini stands at the vanguard of a brave new trend in Islamic education. Mohseini is putting the finishing touches on a new US$5 million educational complex that stands just behind his office, and he wanted me to see it. It’s a sweeping co-ed campus, with lecture halls, science labs, and internet cafés. When the madrassa opens fully this year, the curriculum will consist of half Islamic study, half science, math and computer classes. This is, Mohseini says with a certain gruffness, “a radical break” from traditional syllabi – and having spent a few days last year visiting a madrassa in Yemen where the only textbook was a Koran, I can see what he means.

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Posted by Lauren Keaneon February 7, 2008 11:16 AM