A cultural counter-revolution? - Haibatollah’s flagship jihadi madrassahs

The Taliban Amir has championed an initiative to establish what he calls “jihadi madrassahs” around the country. These new madrassahs have been rolled out in many of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, although the Taliban have not been clear about how many they intend to establish.

The Taliban Movement has long been associated with Afghanistan and Pakistan’s madrassahs. The movement recruited students from these institutions as fighter during its initial campaign from 1994 and during the insurgency against the Republic. The madrassah of jihad in Kandahar was one of the important Emirate institutions during Mullah Omar’s rule.

Haibatollah has taken jihadi madrassah building to scale. Tens of thousands of boys and young men are being drafted into the madrassahs and the Amir is using his direct control over Emirate finances to shower resources on them. Jihadi madrassah teachers now receive far higher pay than teachers in the school system and the Emirate is covering the cost of food and dormitories.

There are both similarities and differences between the newly minted jihadi madrassahs and existing madrassahs. The published curriculums are fairly standard, drawing on the long tradition of South Asian Sunni religious education, in part inspired by Dar ul Uloom in Deoband. There has been much speculation that jihadi madrassahs offer military training. But this is not reflected in the published curriculums. The key institutional difference is that the jihadi madrassahs are funded and run by the Taliban’s state. The ideological and political affiliation of the teaching staff is key. Jihadi ulema are being recruited to run the jihadi madrassahs. These are ulema considered loyal to the Emirate and committed to propagating, through their teaching, the Taliban’s message that waging violent jihad is the only way to establish and defend an Islamic system.

The jihadi madrassah initiative represents a conscious effort by the Taliban Amir to eradicate two decades of western cultural influence and to prepare a new generation of young men ready to join the Taliban’ jihad and embrace martyrdom in the service of the Emirate.

Podcast produced by Colm Heatley.