Madrasah and Muslim Education: Its Interface with Urbanization

Abstract

Madrasah, a Muslim religious school, and pesantren, loosely defined as a Muslim boarding school, are amongst the many Muslim educational institutions that still exist todayamidst the tides of challenges brought about by urbanization. In contrast, pondok, another informal religious boarding school, and Imam-Khatib (Teacher-Student) schools in Turkey, are experiencing a near demise (Hasan Langgulung & Che Noraini Hashim, 2005) or politicalobliteration (Soon-Yong Pak, 2004), respectively. Such differing positioning of Muslim educational institutions has been attributedto the interface with and impact of urbanization, amongst other key socio-politico-economic factors. In other words, urbanizationhas been perceived as a contributing factor to the decline of Muslim educational institutions, including the madrasah, and Muslim education in general. Yet, arguably, urbanization has accelerated the process of madrasah’s curriculum reformation, and strengthened madrasah’s position as the focal point of Muslim individuals’ quests for their personal equilibrium. Such complex interface betweenmadrasah and urbanization, and its seemingly imponderable ironies will be the focus of this chapter. In a nutshell, this chapter proposesto review the challenges of madrasah and Muslim education in and around the process of urbanization and its responses and strategies in mitigating the impactof the interface. These strategies, such as the Islamization of knowledge, curriculum reformation, and the promotion of Muslimeducation for human and social capitals, in turn, will be critically analyzed. Case studies of Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan,and Turkey will be surveyed from its comparative socio-historical analysis rather than chronological perspective, to givean overview of the madrasah and Muslim educational system in those countries.