Generally perceived as institutions imparting Islamic education to Muslim children, city madrasas are turning over a new leaf by increasingly opening their doors to the students from various religions, providing them functional education like any other school.

Non-Muslim students, showing interest to learn Urdu and Arabic apart from English, Maths, Science or Social Studies, are helping the madrasas break stereotypical image.

At present, there are three madrasas in the city which are providing school education till class VIII along with Islamic education to around 900 students from across the city. Madrasa Eizahal-Uloom Mujahidi, Manimajra, Madrasa Shirajul-uloom, Govindpura, and Arobia Faizal Islam in Sector 45 are the three madrasas.

Out of a total of 350 students at the Manimajra madrasa, there are 18 children who belong to other community and five among them are studying Urdu while one of them is learning Arabic as well. There are around 10 students from other religions at the Sector 45 madrasa.

Shakeel Ahmed Khan, principal of the Manimajra madrasa, says that the strength of the students from other religions increases by two to three students every year. "In many cases, the child says that he is a Hindu and doesn't want to learn Urdu or Arabic but their parents turn up and request us to teach them both the languages. Some of these students catch up the pronunciation of Urdu words equally well as any other madrasa student," he adds.

Vishal Singh, a student of class VII, says, "Initially, my other friends who had joined the government schools discouraged me from going to a madrasa where only Muslims go but my parents preferred madrasa as the environment here is very education-friendly: equal treatment, same education, same books, same uniform and same food."

Another class VII student, Jeet Singh, studied at government school in Indira Colony in Manimajra but took admission to the madrasa last year. He is among those students who are studying Urdu at the madrasa. Not only Urdu, but he is also learning Arabic.

"Now it's five languages that I am learning: English, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and Arabic. I joined the madrasa last year only and I can very well read the alphabets of both Urdu and Arabic. I am learning these languages out of my own interest," he says.

Also, 50% of the teachers at these madrasas are non-Muslims, who come from far-off places to teach these students. One of the teachers, Sanjeet Kaur, at the Manimajra madrasa has been teaching Urdu along with English and Environmental Studies for four years.

Another teacher at the madrasa, Ritu Kondel, says, "Before joining the madrasa as a teacher, I always thought that the madrasas are only concerned with religious teachings but the curriculum here is not limited to only Islamic studies or Quran but equal emphasis is given to all other subjects. It is good to see that the madrasa students are doing equally well as any other student at other schools."

The madrasa at Gobindpura has the least strength of 200 students. Of these, 10 are non-Muslims.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/opening-doors-to-all-city-madrasas-turn-over-a-new-leaf/1196244/