Cheering madrasas

Madrasas, according to Ms Borker, changed the lives of Muslim girls. Otherwise, they may have been still stuck at home, changing nappies

A madrasa is a quintessentially Islamic institution which, like Islam, doesn’t recognise the notion of separate religious and secular spaces and regards dini (religious or spiritual) and duniyavi (worldly/material) as two sides of the same coin — a  non-negotiable package, take it or leave it. A worldview that makes madrasas look antediluvian — and the education they impart irrelevant to the needs and temper of a secular age.

Many would say they don’t just “look” antediluvian; they’re antediluvian and no amount of pretend-modernisation by bringing in computers and introducing a smattering of English can change their inherently insular and exclusivist