VZCZCXRO5624
RR RUEHIK RUEHPW RUEHYG
DE RUEHBUL #0252/01 0310509
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 310509Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2608
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KABUL 000252 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A 
NSC FOR WOOD 
OSD FOR SHIVERS 
CENTCOM FOR CG CJTF-82 POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL MOPS AF
SUBJECT: PRT KHOST: MADRASSA STUDENTS -- "THE REAL TALIBAN" 
-- CITE GAP WITH GOVERNMENT AND U.S., SEEK MORE RESOURCES 
 
¶1. SUMMARY:  Madrassa students and mullahs in Khost have 
welcomed initial GIRoA efforts to reinforce and better fund 
balanced religious education in Afghanistan.  Hundreds of 
students and mullahs have stressed to the PRT that the 
longstanding gap between religious students ) who call 
themselves the "real Taliban" (Note: "Taliban" means 
religious student) - and the GIRoA has aided extremist 
propaganda and objectives.  Minister of Education Atmar told 
a Khost leadership delegation that the most important project 
in the entire province would be a major madrassa adjacent to 
the UAE-funded Khost University campus.  The facility will 
provide quality religious instruction in a professional 
setting tied to the government.  Minister Atmar has publicly 
announced his desire to build government-approved madrassas 
in every province (pending funding) that would teach both 
standard subjects such as history and math as well as 
subjects related to Islam. 
 
¶2. Khost madrassa students assert that religious extremists 
attempt to recruit them by stressing the lack of GIRoA 
attention to their needs.  Notably, senior Khost mullahs, 
supported by Khost Governor Arsala Jamal, have advocated the 
formation of a new "Taliban Shura" comprised of religious 
students in Khost.  Minister Atmar is expected to visit Khost 
in February to emphasize GIRoA's commitment to a structured 
and balanced program of Islamic education (reportedly, only 
14 of Khost's 84 madrassas are registered).  The PRT is 
working with provincial officials to help move that plan 
forward across Khost's 13 districts, providing a model for 
other parts of the country.  END SUMMARY. 
 
GAP WITH GOVERNMENT -- AND WITH AMERICANS 
----------------------------------------- 
¶3. In regular discussions hundreds of madrassa students and 
dozens of mullahs have expressed concerns about the large gap 
that exists between them and the GIRoA and the coalition. 
One senior mullah said that the most effective way to defeat 
religious extremists over the long term was through support 
of moderate madrassas and empowerment of moderate Islamic 
students.  In his words, "We must win this battle ourselves." 
 He added, however, that the GIRoA's efforts to help 
religious moderates had so far been minimal. 
 
¶4. A majority of madrassa students have openly questioned 
GIRoA and U.S. educational priorities in Khost.  While many 
welcome the public emphasis on education (50 new boys, and 
girls, schools in 2007, for example), they question why 
resources have been largely limited to regular school 
infrastructure and female education.  One madrassa student 
remarked in a session in Khost's remote and mountainous Musa 
Kehl District that religious students there felt neglected 
"by the government and by the PRT."  Several students have 
further argued that this gap makes "good Taliban" (i.e., 
themselves, in the classical meaning of "Taliban" as 
"religious student") believe the coalition is either 
indifferent to their needs or, more damagingly, anti-Islam. 
 
¶5. Khost madrassa students have told the PRT that terrorist 
propaganda has effectively exploited this gap since 2001; one 
student, who spent time in Pakistan's madrassas, said that 
"they (extremists) ask us, 'What has the Afghan government or 
coalition done for you?'"  It is customary in many Pashtun 
Afghan homes in border provinces for between one-quarter and 
one-half of male children to attend area madrassas (usually 
the eldest son, at a minimum, and several sons among large 
families in the more remote and conservative Pashtun belt 
areas).  With past government and PRT efforts focused 
primarily on non-religious educational needs, divisions have 
grown.  Even regular school teachers and non-religious 
students (most of whom have brothers attending madrassas) 
have voiced these concerns.  They point to the perception 
that the GIRoA, alongside perceived U.S. indifference, has 
intentionally sidelined madrassas or deemed most or all to be 
sources of religious fanaticism, which they said undercuts 
stability across Khost. 
 
MODERATE MULLAHS AS MESSENGERS 
------------------------------ 
¶6. Senior mullah and ex-PTS (reconciliation) program director 
Mullah Sardar has highlighted the need for moderate religious 
leaders in Pakistan who are Afghan natives to be welcomed 
 
KABUL 00000252  002 OF 003 
 
 
back to Afghanistan.  Recent increased fighting in Pakistan's 
tribal areas, he noted, has created an opportunity for Afghan 
education officials to recruit top, moderate mullahs back 
into Afghan mosques and madrassas.  Sardar said the GIRoA 
would need to increase salaries, however; on average, 
"private" madrassa teachers collect 20,000-30,000 Afghani per 
month in fees -- ten times the official government salary. 
 
¶7. Mullah Sardar noted that a majority of eastern 
Afghanistan's madrassa students prefer to be educated inside 
Afghanistan, but lack options.  Many students have echoed 
this desire in discussions with the PRT.  Several have said 
that increased fighting in Pakistan, especially in border 
areas, has led to a reverse flow of religious students from 
Pakistan traveling to Afghanistan for instruction -- a first, 
despite Afghanistan's more limited religious education 
options. 
 
SHURA:  REAL TALIBAN WANT GOOD NAME BACK 
---------------------------------------- 
¶8. Khost Governor Jamal has supported calls by key Khost 
mullahs to establish a new "Taliban Shura," meaning a shura 
composed of students of Islam.  Mullah Sardar has said that a 
forum for religious students would empower moderate voices 
inside madrassas, although all viewpoints would be respected. 
 The PRT has met with numerous groups of Khost madrassa 
students since summer 2007, all of which exhibited the full 
spectrum of Islamic ideology, ranging from extreme and openly 
anti-coalition in outlook to moderates and those in favor of 
U.S. and government reconstruction and security initiatives. 
The new Taliban Shura would allow these internal debates to 
be held in a formal body through which government officials 
could be regularly engaged regarding needs and concerns. 
 
¶9. Several madrassa students have told the PRT that media 
reports of government officials describing "Taliban attacks, 
Taliban extremists, Taliban deaths, etc." have offended and 
alienated them.  They stress that the widespread misuse of 
the term by both extremists and the international community 
has reinforced a desire to re-take "our holy name" so that a 
Taliban is once again a student.  Two madrassa students in 
central Khost said they understood why western media used the 
term to describe militants, but noted that the net effect 
inevitably led to more frustration within moderate madrassa 
populations.  These self-described &real Taliban8 said that 
the &fake Taliban8 are, in truth, nothing more than 
terrorists -- and should be called terrorists, and not be 
allowed to share their name. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
¶10. The construction of a major madrassa will begin in late 
January 2008.  It will be adjacent to the new Khost 
University campus, and be of a comparable high quality. 
Minister Atmar has tentatively agreed to visit Khost in 
February for a series of education-related events, to include 
the opening of the new university campus and sessions with 
religious leaders reinforcing GIRoA's commitment to Islamic 
education.  The Ministry of Education (MoE) appointed a new 
deputy director for Islamic education in Khost and plans to 
appoint such directors in every province, a visible step that 
the resource-deprived madrassas and their students welcomed. 
Additionally, the GIRoA will build a new district madrassa 
with CERP funds in Sabari District in the coming months and 
has already identified a site for a second madrassa. 
 
¶11. Equally important and revealing, moderate madrassa 
students and mullahs in Khost look to the PRT and the 
coalition for greater awareness of their needs, not 
necessarily direct funding.  The current gap between them, 
their government -- and with the PRT -- does not require an 
overt U.S. role, which would likely lead to negative 
perceptions of U.S. interference.  Reinforcing GIRoA and MoE 
plans to build government-supervised district madrassas that 
teach both the traditional curriculum of the Islamic faith as 
well as secular subjects, however, represents an essential 
and overdue counterinsurgency step.  Khost is a frontline 
province where current ideological battles internal to its 
mosques and madrassas remain heated and with lasting 
repercussions.  Madrassa students here persuasively argue 
that only they can defeat religious extremists from the 
 
KABUL 00000252  003 OF 003 
 
 
inside, but only with more direct Afghan government support 
that is sufficiently resourced. 
WOOD