Pakistan is one of the most populous Muslim countries in the world. It is also consistently among the world’s most violent states. Religious seminaries (madrassah, pl. madaaris) are often posited as the main cause of Pakistan-based Islamist violence that occurs within Pakistan and beyond. Here, we reorient the madrassah discussion from transnational security to domestic security for Pakistan and its citizens. First, we examine the household use of madaaris, as well as public and private schools. We find that madrassah utilisation is surprisingly stable and low across more than two decades. We next look for correlations between madrassah enrolments and violence within Pakistan. While we find either no correlation or a negative correlation between madrassah utilisation and violence across several specifications using various sources of data, we consistently find evidence that incidences of violence are higher in wealthier and more densely populated areas.
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