This is no surprise. There has long been a problem with the preaching of jihad in Afghan schools, and in those in neighboring Pakistan also. A 2015 study by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit turned up “extensive activity” by jihadist groups in schools; groups including Hizb ut-Tahrir, Jamiat-e-Islah, and Tehrik-e-Islami. These groups were found to be recruiting teachers who then recruited students.
Fazal Mohammad Hussaini, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs, which oversees religious schools and mosques, has admitted that the ministry doesn’t know what mosques are teaching. That’s because tens of thousands of mosques exist in the country, while only “about 7,000 are registered with the ministry.”
The West has the same problem: officials have no idea what is being taught in mosques under our noses, and to merely suggest the monitoring of mosques is met with screams of “Islamophobia.” Thanks to proponents of reckless open-door immigration, the West is importing an increasing number of jihadists who operate under the radar. Take for instance, a Georgia mosque whose imam boasted that there “has not been another 9/11 because Islam is winning.”
“In Afghanistan, Religious Schools Are a Breeding Ground for Islamic State Influence,” by Stefanie Glinski, Foreign Policy, January 24, 2020:
KUNAR, Afghanistan—A small group of boys sits cross-legged on the floor, reciting the Quran under their breath, their bodies moving rhythmically to the Arabic words, in the light-flooded rooms of the religious school connected to the mosque in the village of Lamatak.
“At first I’d read the Arabic text without understanding, but our teachers are always here to answer our questions,” Fazil Haq, a green-eyed 14-year-old student, said excitedly. “God will be happy when I study the Quran.”
All of the children here in the madrassa in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province are getting their education free of charge. But Afghan security officials are increasingly concerned that too much of the money going to newly mushrooming madrassas such as this one could be encouraging extremism in the region. With the Kabul administration only able to financially support a minority of mosques and religious schools, money from Islamic State sympathizers might fund a growing majority of these institutions. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs says there are likely tens of thousands of mosques in the country, but only about 7,000 are registered with the ministry.
“Of course that’s a problem, and it is mainly due to lacking funding,” said Fazal Mohammad Hussaini, the ministry’s spokesman. “The messages and Friday sermons in the registered mosques are largely controlled and prepared by the ministry, but not all of Afghanistan is under government control, and we don’t know for certain what some mosques might be teaching.”
Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, says some madrassa funding helps support Islamic State activities, though most religious leaders of both mosques and madrassas deny this. But as peace talks with the Taliban falter, some Afghan officials are worried about a rebirth of radical Islamism.
Mullawi Abdul Rahman, 25, who teaches about 90 students, said around 30 of them have come from all across Kunar and stay in the madrassa’s dorms, while the rest of the boys are local villagers.
But in Lamatak—home to about 300 families—villagers claim that at night, Islamic State fighters have been coming down from the nearby mountains, seeking shelter for the night in both houses and the mosque, before scattering again at dawn. Rahman denied this….