This study reverses the conventional binary of madrassah (in)security by critically investigating how (in)security has defined and shaped the madrassah question in Pakistan in the post-9/11 era. It argues that the state’s policy vis-a-vis madrassahs has been highly securitized in two stages since the inception of the ‘war on terrorism.’ From 2001 to 2013, madrassahs and their reforms agenda were set in a predominantly security (threat) frame through speeches, narratives, and policy initiatives of the Pakistani as well as the US government officials, thus performing a discursive function. The second and more forceful shift, however, transpired around 2014, when the state started building a potent and ineluctable security apparatus – termed a security regime—to regulate seminaries by incorporating madrassah reforms in successive security policy documents and strategies and employing various security techniques such as geo -tagging/geo-mapping, monitoring/surveillance, investigations, crack down, etc. The broader analysis of this study is premised on the reasoning of securitization theory and ‘speech act’ methods/strategies of discourse analysis/production. At a subsidiary level, the article makes a case for the desecuritization of madrassah reforms. This study seeks to contribute to the literature on madrassahs and offer some insights to policymakers.
Abdur Rehman Shah (Fri,) studied this question.