Engaging Madrasas: Three Voices from Pakistan

The CSIS Post-Conflict Reconstruction (PCR) Project and South Asia Program invite you to:

Engaging Madrasas: Three Voices from Pakistan

with

Dr. Abdul Rashid has served as Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies at the University of Karachi and is a religious scholar who is highly respected by Pakistan's madrasa community.  ICRD and Dr. Rashid have developed a Madrasa Teacher Training Institute at the University of Karachi to provide professional development training and eventual certification for madrasa teachers-the first of its kind in Pakistan.

Abbas Husain is the Founder and Director of the Teachers' Development Centre (TDC) in Karachi, which has trained over 13,000 teachers in Pakistan as a part of various initiatives to promote excellence in education.  Mr. Husain is leading the monitoring and evaluation of the first Madrasa Teacher Training Institute program developed by ICRD and the University of Karachi.

Qazi Abdul Qadeer Khamosh is the Founder and Chairman of Muslim Christian Federation International (MCFI) and a close partner in the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy's madrasa enhancement initiative.  In addition to helping to facilitate numerous training workshops for male madrasa leaders, Mr. Khamosh has collaborated with ICRD in conducting the first training workshop for female madrasa leaders, specialized workshops on Islam and Democracy, and interfaith workshops for Pakistani Christian and Muslim leaders.

Moderated by
Doug Johnston, President, International Center for Religion and Diplomacy

The three speakers, who will also be taking part in the National Prayer Breakfast, will discuss the benefits of respectful engagement with the madrasas, including their potential role as effective counters to the forces of extremism. The speakers will also focus on pilot training programs at the University of Karachi for madrasa faculty that will eventually lead to their certification. Heretofore, there have been no standards or accountability involved in opening madrasas; this certification system will represent an important first step toward bringing quality control to a critically important arena.