The thing about what Bob Kerrey said that bothers me is he said Obama attended a secular madrassa. That is not true. He attended a public school. Fox News lied, CNN called them out on it, and now Bob Kerrey is picking up where Fox left off. It's rather despicable on his part.
He attended a secular school.
What is the problem again?
Of course there is no different interpretation or slang for the word madrassa.
Madrassa is Arabic, a language not spoken in Indonesia.
Allah is also Arabic. Do you think Muslims in Indonesia have a different word for him?
It took me just a couple of hours to contact Southeast Asian experts well-versed in the history of religious extremism in Indonesia to pin down a few points. Incidentally, in Indonesia, a "madrassa" by definition is an Islamic school with a curriculum that is 70 percent academic and 30 percent religious, according to Terance Bigalke, director of the education program at Honolulu's East-West Center, which specializes in research on the Asia Pacific. Faith-based studies are emphasized more, Bigalke said, in the traditional Islamic boarding school or "pesantrens." Fundamentalist madrassas and pesantrens do exist in Indonesia today, he said, but came into being only after the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s. Obama had left Jakarta by then. So in theory, even if Obama had attended a madrassa -- which he didn't -- he wasn't taking Romper Room-style terrorist-in-training classes. "In 1967-69 (When Obama was a primary school student) I think it is accurate to say that Salafist or radically fundamentalist Islamic institutions in Indonesia were basically nonexistent," Bigalke said. "They certainly were not prominent." Bigalke added, "There are thousands of madrassas in Indonesia today ranging from tiny to very large, and they span the spectrum from very modernistic and future-oriented to very conservative. "Overall, however, Indonesian madrassas generally would be viewed in the Muslim world and outside of it as largely moderate and tolerant in their religious orientation." link
Incidentally, in Indonesia, a "madrassa" by definition is an Islamic school with a curriculum that is 70 percent academic and 30 percent religious, according to Terance Bigalke, director of the education program at Honolulu's East-West Center, which specializes in research on the Asia Pacific.
Faith-based studies are emphasized more, Bigalke said, in the traditional Islamic boarding school or "pesantrens."
Fundamentalist madrassas and pesantrens do exist in Indonesia today, he said, but came into being only after the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s.
Obama had left Jakarta by then.
So in theory, even if Obama had attended a madrassa -- which he didn't -- he wasn't taking Romper Room-style terrorist-in-training classes.
"In 1967-69 (When Obama was a primary school student) I think it is accurate to say that Salafist or radically fundamentalist Islamic institutions in Indonesia were basically nonexistent," Bigalke said. "They certainly were not prominent."
Bigalke added, "There are thousands of madrassas in Indonesia today ranging from tiny to very large, and they span the spectrum from very modernistic and future-oriented to very conservative.
"Overall, however, Indonesian madrassas generally would be viewed in the Muslim world and outside of it as largely moderate and tolerant in their religious orientation."
link
Let's at least get our facts straight here. Obama didn't go to a madrassa, as far as I know, but that hardly means there are no madrassas in Indonesia.
On this subject, I found the following comment, from Yglesias' comment thread, to be kinda interesting (only partially excerpted):
Vanya is correct, in Indonesian the word for school is sekolah, a term which derives from Dutch and English. Indonesian, also called Bahasa Melayu, has borrowed many Arabic words; this is not surprising given the volume of trade in the Indian Ocean over the past 1000+ years. I lived in Indonesia at about the same time as Obama; I attended what was usually called the International School while he did not. For those who know little about the Muslim world, the key is that Obama lived in SEAsia, Indonesia specifically. Indonesia's Muslim parties have all supported a secular state since the early 1950s; this goes back to Masjumi. There have been schools associated with Mosques--usually called pesantren or perhaps sekolah musjid, but not madrassa--but these schools offer both religious and non-religious subjects (sciences, math etc) and have done so in many cases for over a century, even the schools founded by Arabs (mostly from what is now Yemen) or those which sought to bring in Arab teachers (a common phenomenon during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in both Indonesia and Malaysia, and one opposed by both English and Dutch authorities) to enhance the curriculum. . . . .
I lived in Indonesia at about the same time as Obama; I attended what was usually called the International School while he did not.
For those who know little about the Muslim world, the key is that Obama lived in SEAsia, Indonesia specifically. Indonesia's Muslim parties have all supported a secular state since the early 1950s; this goes back to Masjumi. There have been schools associated with Mosques--usually called pesantren or perhaps sekolah musjid, but not madrassa--but these schools offer both religious and non-religious subjects (sciences, math etc) and have done so in many cases for over a century, even the schools founded by Arabs (mostly from what is now Yemen) or those which sought to bring in Arab teachers (a common phenomenon during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in both Indonesia and Malaysia, and one opposed by both English and Dutch authorities) to enhance the curriculum.
. . . .
by commenter djeri
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/a rchives/2007/12/stay_classy_bob_kerrey.p hp#comments
It's amazing that Bob Kerrey (a non-Muslim I believe) is the first person is the world to use madrassa to just mean school.
Really...how could everyone else be so wrong.
