A woman who identified herself as director of Al Huda's office in Multan confirmed Monday that Malik began a two-year course in religious studies in 2013 but left after "a few months" without earning a diploma.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that Malik, 29, who was born to a well-off family in the Pakistani province of Punjab, attended classes at Al Huda while she was enrolled at a university in Multan. Malik and her husband both died in a shootout with police after the rampage at the nonprofit Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
"Nothing that happens in the classroom explains the actions of this woman (Malik) but it can predispose people" to violence, Mushtaq said. "What happens in these Al Huda classes is teaching these urban, educated, upper-middle-class women a very conservative interpretation of Islam that makes them very judgmental about others around them - that it's their job to go out and reform people and bring them toward the path of true Islam," said Faiza Mushtaq, a Pakistani scholar who wrote her doctoral dissertation on the organization. Yet experts say Al Huda seminaries promote anti-Western views and hard-line practices - including gender segregation and veils for women - that could encourage some adherents to lash out against nonbelievers. Pakistani officials and experts who have studied Al Huda say this is the first time it has been linked to a militant attack, and an official with the organization said Monday that it "does not support terrorism." Last week's rampage by Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, which killed 14 and injured 21, has cast a fresh spotlight on the teachings of Al Huda, part of a vast patchwork of Islamic seminaries, Quran prayer groups and other religious institutions that operate outside Pakistani government control and are often accused of fueling radicalism. (FBI, left, and California Department of Motor Vehicles via AP) ORG XMIT: NY402 Show More Show LessĪl Huda, Hashmi's chain of schools, has more than 70 locations across Pakistan - including in the central city of Multan, where, for several months beginning in 2013, the students included the future San Bernardino, Calif., shooter, Tashfeen Malik. The husband and wife died in a fierce gunbattle with authorities several hours after their commando-style assault on a gathering of Farook's colleagues from San Bernardino, Calif., County's health department Wednesday, Dec. (AP Photo/Asim Tanveer) ORG XMIT: ISL107 Asim Tanveer Show More Show Less 2 of5 This undated combination of photos provided by the FBI, left, and the California Department of Motor Vehicles shows Tashfeen Malik, left, and Syed Farook. Al-Huda's founder, Farhat Hashmi, now living in Canada, has been criticized for promoting a conservative strain of Islam. The officials identified the school as a women-only madrassa with a chain across Pakistan and branches in the U.S. 1 of5 A security guard sits at the main entrance to the Al-Huda International Seminary, where Tashfeen Malik, California's female shooter attended, according to Pakistani intelligence officials, in Multan, Pakistan, Monday, Dec.