Most Pakistanis want madrassa reform: USIP poll

* Majority supports Islamic democracy, but distrust US and war on terror
* Oppose Talibanisation, but also military action against Taliban

WASHINGTON: A large moderate middle-bloc of Pakistanis support government reform of religious schools known as madrassas, which have been blamed for spreading Islamist militancy, according to a poll released on Monday.

The poll, funded by the US Institute of Peace (USIP), was conducted in the country before President Pervez Musharraf’s six-week state of emergency and the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto last month.

The poll results, released about six weeks before the elections scheduled for February 18, show that 64 percent of Pakistanis wanted madrassas reform by the government.

Islamic democracy: Most Pakistanis want their country to be a democratic Islamic state, but are deeply distrustful of the United States and its war on terrorism, the results reveal.

The results also show that a large majority of Pakistanis see democracy as fully compatible with Islam. Democracy ranked especially high among the 60 percent of respondents who wanted Muslim-based Sharia law to play a larger role in legal affairs of the country.

The survey finds strong public support for a wider role for Islam. Asked to gauge the importance of living ‘in a country that is governed according to Islamic principles’ on a 10-point scale, 61 percent give an answer of 10 (meaning ‘absolutely important’). The mean response is 9.0. However, when asked to gauge the degree to which Pakistan is currently governed by Islamic principles, the mean score is just 4.6 (on a 0-10 scale with 10 meaning ‘completely’). Sixty percent want Sharia to play a larger role, as compared to current Pakistan law.

“It shows there is no major Western-oriented secular sub-group in Pakistan. People want more Islam. They don’t think Pakistan is pious enough or that Islamic values are adequately expressed in daily life,” said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, a non-profit group affiliated with the University of Maryland that conducted the poll for the USIP.

No Talibanisation: The poll showed that 59 percent of the public want to hold the line against the encroachment of conservative Muslim mores known as “Talibanisation”, he said.

Three in five (60-62 percent) view the activities of Al Qaeda, local Taliban, and Pakistani Islamist militant groups as threats to Pakistan’s vital interests. However, a significant 14 to 18 percent do not view these groups as a threat to Pakistan.

Eighty-one percent say it is important for Pakistan to protect religious minorities and three quarters (75-78 percent) say that attacks on specific religious minorities are never justified.

Pakistanis also say it is important to live in a country where “the decisions of the courts are independent from influence by political and military authorities”, giving it a mean score of 8.6 on the 10-point scale.

The poll, which has a 3.3 percentage point margin of error, surveyed 907 adults in 19 Pakistani cities from September 12-28. About 49 percent of the respondents were women. reuters