US embassy cable - 02KATHMANDU363

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 000363 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS 
 
LONDON FOR POL/RIEGEL 
 
E.O. 12958:    N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, KIRF, SOCI, NP, Nepali Government Policy 
SUBJECT: NEPALI GOVERNMENT MOVES TO REGULATE MADRASAS 
 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1. (SBU) SUMMARY:   A notice from the Home Ministry 
announcing that private Muslim schools must register 
with local authorities has drawn criticism from the 
Muslim community.  Some Muslim leaders view the measure 
as an empty gesture, probably performed at the behest of 
the Indian government, that will do nothing to improve 
the quality of education available to Muslim youth. 
One Muslim educator warned that the lack of educational 
opportunities may further marginalize youth in his 
community, making them potentially more sympathetic to 
extremist movements like Maoism.  End summary. 
 
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MADRASAS MUST REGISTER 
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2.  (U) On January 31 the Cabinet decided that Muslim 
religious schools, or madrasas, will have to register 
with local District Administration and Education Offices 
and supply information about their funding sources in 
order to operate.  According to the Cabinet's official 
announcement, the measure was taken to ensure the 
"quality and transparency" in the schools' operation. 
On Feb. 1 the Home Ministry followed up the Cabinet 
decision with an announcement that all madrasas must 
register with their respective District Administration 
Offices by March 13. 
 
3.  (U) Baikuntha Das Shrestha, Joint Secretary at the 
Ministry of Education and Sports, told poloff that the 
measure, which will also affect private Sanskrit 
schools, is not intended to single out madrasas for 
scrutiny.  Nor should the timing of the announcement, 
which occurred the week before Nepal's Home Secretary 
met his Indian counterpart in New Delhi to discuss 
counter-terrorism cooperation, be considered 
significant, Shrestha said.  In fact, the measure 
figured as part of implementing regulations now being 
drafted for an amendment to the Education Bill passed 
during the last session of Parliament.  Shrestha 
estimated there are approximately 300-350 madrasas 
operating in Nepal, most of them concentrated in the 
southern lowland Terai districts along the Indian 
border. 
 
4.  (U) Madrasas and other private schools now operate 
without oversight by the central government.  Most of 
the textbooks used in madrasas come from India, 
according to Shrestha, and are written in Urdu.  The 
amendment will now require madrasas and other private 
schools to submit curricula for non-religious academic 
subjects, such as mathematics, science, and Nepali, to 
the National Curriculum Council for approval, Shrestha 
said.  There is so far no effort to regulate, 
standardize, or scrutinize the credentials of teachers 
in madrasas, most of whom come from India. 
 
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MUSLIM LEADERS WANT GON AID 
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5.  (SBU) Muslim leaders contacted said they were 
unhappy with the measure--especially since apparently no 
one in their community was consulted before it was 
issued.  Salim Mian Ansari, a former Minister and 
current head of Nepal's largest Muslim social welfare 
organization, was quoted in the press as charging the 
Government of Nepal (GON) acted under pressure from 
India and the U.S.  (In a subsequent conversation with 
poloff, he amended his accusatory remarks to include 
only India.)  He said he has long pressed the GON to 
help madrasas to modernize.  If the GON is truly 
concerned about how Muslim schools operate, he argued, 
it should provide them some funding to update their 
science and mathematics curricula.  Since the new 
registration requirement does nothing to improve the 
quality of madrasa education or to set standards for 
their operation, Ansari concluded the measure was 
adopted only as a window-dressing gesture to appease 
India. 
 
6.  (SBU) Ansari's views were echoed by Syed Mohammed 
Habibullah, a political science professor at Tribhuvan 
University.  The low quality of education available to 
Muslim students at madrasas limits their professional 
opportunities, ensuring that they remain marginalized 
and out of mainstream Nepali society, he asserted.  If 
the GON continues to fail to remove some of the 
inequities the Muslim community faces and makes no 
effort to integrate them more fully into society, 
disadvantaged Muslim youth could become willing recruits 
for extremist movements, like the Maoists, that promise 
social equality. Habibullah waved off poloff's question 
about the popularity of Muslim extremist movements with 
local communities; he said he regards the possible 
appeal of Maoism as the greater threat. 
 
7.  (SBU) Like Ansari, Habibullah viewed the new 
requirement as having little or no impact, for either 
better or worse, on the madrasas' operations.  That the 
notice announcing the registration requirement was 
issued by the Home Ministry, rather the Education 
Ministry, casts suspicion on the motivation behind the 
new requirement, Habibullah said.  The notice was issued 
without any prior consultation with the Muslim 
community, he observed, which raises questions about the 
GON's intent, especially since community members like 
him have long urged the GON to take a more active role 
in their improvement.  For example, Habibullah said he 
has approached the GON about forming a madrasa board, 
with participation from the Muslim community, to oversee 
and upgrade the operation of the schools. 
 
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COMMENT 
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8.  (SBU)  Requiring madrasas to register may help the 
GON get a better handle on how many are operating within 
its borders, but will do little by itself to address 
Muslim community concerns about improving the quality of 
the education they offer.  The GON may lack the 
resources to help address these concerns but can do a 
better job of consulting the community on decisions that 
affect them.  The gap between the Ministry of 
Education's official explanation for the new requirement 
and the perception within the Muslim community of 
underlying ulterior motives points to a fundamental lack 
of communication the GON would do well to address. 
 
Malinowski