Islamic schools, or madrasas, have been accused of radicalizing Muslims and
participating, either actively or passively, in terrorist networks since the
events of 9/11. In Pakistan, the 2007 siege by government forces of Islamabad's
Red Mosque and its madrasa complex, whose imam and students staged an armed
resistance against the state for its support of the "war on terror," reinforced
concerns about madrasas' role in regional and global jihad. By 2006 madrasas
registered with Pakistan's five regulatory boards for religious schools enrolled
over one million male and 200,000 female students. In The Rational Believer,
Masooda Bano draws on rich interview, ethnographic, and survey data, as well as
fieldwork