Religious leaders in Pakistan are blasting a government plan to crack down on that nation???s 10,000 madrasas, Islamic schools that often foster religious extremism, and the government has been too nervous to press for reforms, according to an article in The New York Times. Government ministers had hoped to get the madrasas to register, submit to financial oversight, and accept teacher training and textbooks in exchange for broadening their curriculum beyond Islamic teachings, but school leaders say they will never accept reforms that they assert are being imposed by Americans. U.S. officials deny that they are behind the proposals. Meanwhile, the madrasas continue filling hundreds of thousands of young Pakistani minds with hatred. ???Pakistani clerics fight school plans,??? by Ian Fisher, The New York Times, August 4, 2002
