They say they focus entirely on religious instruction. But when one’s religious instruction touches on Qur’anic directives to wage war against the “People of the Book” and subjugate them (Qur’an 9:29), the distinction between religious instruction and terror training may become a bit blurry.
“Pakistani seminary furious over US ‘terrorist’ tag,” by Jibran Ahmed for Reuters, August 22 (thanks to Kenneth):
PESHAWAR, Pakistan “” Students and teachers at a Pakistani Islamic school designated as a “terrorist training center” by the United States furiously rebutted the charges Wednesday and said they had not had a chance to defend themselves against the accusations.
The U.S. Treasury imposed economic sanctions on the Ganj madrassa, or Islamic school, in Peshawar on Tuesday, saying it trained recruits and facilitated funding for al-Qaida, the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is accused by Indian intelligence of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The sanctions include a ban on U.S. citizens having any dealings with individuals or assets linked to the school. The Pakistani Interior Ministry and army declined to comment on the decision.
The Treasury said Fazeel-A-Tul Shaykh Abu Mohammed Ameen al-Peshawari, known as Shaykh Aminullah, controlled the school. In 2009, both the U.S. and the United Nations accused him of providing material support to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
But 83-year-old Haji Alam Sher, who founded the school as a mosque more than two decades ago, denied this.
“He was just a regular prayer leader here but he left eight months ago and I’ve never heard of him again,” Sher told Reuters angrily. “I condemn perpetrators of terrorism and would never support those carrying out suicide attacks.”
The United States accuses the school of radicalizing students to conduct terrorist and insurgent activities and training them to become bomb manufacturers and suicide bombers.
Donations collected for the school were directed to terrorist groups such as the Taliban, which used the money to fund the ongoing violence in Afghanistan, the Treasury said.
But the school’s principal said teachers focused on religion, not militancy.
“This is a religious school where purely religious knowledge is given to the students,” Maulana Mohammad Ibrahim said….
That could be your problem right there.