Culture of Arbitrariness in Madrasah Education System

Abstract

In recent decades, several Madrasahs in Bangladesh have been marked by media for being involved with training young students into militants. A number of print and electronic media reported its alleged connection to fundamentalists in Bangladesh. In this concern, understanding institutional influence on Madrasah students has been undertaken to analyze through Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural arbitrariness. The discussion has focused on the practice of abusing students and their reaction to young minds. No direct connection was found between Madrasah student’s involvement with religious extremist groups, but one Madrasah funded by one leader from Jamaat e Islam has indirect commitment to be part of its student wing called Islamic Chhatra Shibir. Overall there is significant ignorance of Madrasah students regarding democratic political consciousness in the country. On social and political issues, rational interpretation is always superseded by the purified conceptualization of religious principles.