Overview

Islamic schools, or madrasas, have been accused of radicalizing Muslims and participating, either actively or passively, in terrorist networks since the events of 9/11. In Pakistan, the 2007 siege by government forces of Islamabad's Red Mosque and its madrasa complex, whose imam and students staged an armed resistance against the state for its support of the ""war on terror,"" reinforced concerns about madrasas' role in regional and global jihad. By 2006 madrasas registered with Pakistan's five regulatory boards for religious schools enrolled over one million male and 200,000 female students. In The Rational Believer, Masooda Bano draws on rich interview, ethnographic, and survey data, as well as fieldwork conducted in madrasas throughout the country to explore the network of Pakistani madrasas. She maps the choices and decisions confronted by students, teachers, parents, and clerics and explains why available choices make participation in jihad appear at times a viable course of action. Bano's work shows that beliefs are rational and that religious believers look to maximize utility in ways not captured by classical rational choice. She applies analytical tools from the New Institutional Economics to explain apparent contradictions in the madrasa system-for example, how thousands of young Pakistani women now demand the national adoption of traditional sharia law, despite its highly restrictive limits on female agency, and do so from their location in Islamic schools for girls that were founded only a generation ago.

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<p> Masooda Bano's insightful and compelling book dispels many myths about madrasas in Pakistan and elsewhere. It explains the attraction and resilience of such institutions and shows why U.S. and Pakistani policies to target madrasas were both misdirected and ineffectual. The Rational Believer is essential reading for scholars and policymakers interested in education, educational reform, religion and political violence, gender issues in South Asia, and the future of Pakistan. Abdulkader Sinno, Indiana University, author of Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond

<p> Masooda Bano's insightful and compelling book dispels many myths about madrasas in Pakistan and elsewhere. It explains the attraction and resilience of such institutions and shows why U.S. and Pakistani policies to target madrasas were both misdirected and ineffectual. The Rational Believer is essential reading for scholars and policymakers interested in education, educational reform, religion and political violence, gender issues in South Asia, and the future of Pakistan. -Abdulkader Sinno, Indiana University, author of Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond

<p> Bano attempts to answer why Islamic religious schools, or madrasas, and the actors associated with them adopt what to most observers appear to be apparently irrational preferences. . . . engaging in violent action against a more powerful state and rejecting modernity and liberal thought in favor of an Islamic Sharia system. Bano . . . argues that their decisions are actually the outcome of cost-benefit calculations intended to maximize utility, keeping in mind the historical and current context, and hence quite rational. Bano's work represents an important contribution to the field as it provides an insight into the preferences of these actors, which are not adequately explained by classical rational choice theories. It also helps readers understand some of the factors behind the mushrooming of madrasas across South Asia. Choice (May 2013)

Author Information

Masooda Bano is a Research Fellow, Oxford Department of International Development and Wolfson College, University of Oxford.

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