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I always get a little dizzy when this happens, but let me endorse this idea from today's Washington Times:

The madrassa movement is the establishment of schools dedicated to teaching the Koran by memorization. It teaches no marketable skills, and most graduates come out largely illiterate except for memorization and jihadist indoctrination. They are brainwashed candidates for the suicide-bombing program. In many poor Muslim countries, it is the only form of education that they will receive. In many areas, it is the only choice a parent has because it is available and free.

Put yourself in their shoes; you are a young man with no job prospects and no education. You have no chance of attracting a wife. You are promised a ticket to paradise. What would you do? The question for us is, "how do we counter it?" Closing the schools is not the answer. The governments involved would only make martyrs of them or drive them underground; we need antibodies. We need positive ideas to counter this nonsense. To date, we have been using the combination of carrots and sticks to try to force our will on a culture that we do not well understand. I have run this idea through a number of respected Muslim-American scholars; they think it has potential. We should fund a series of academies in each locality where a madrassa school exists. Its curriculum would be two pronged. Mornings would teach the three "Rs." Afternoons would be devoted to some kind of vocational training such as masonry, electrical work, and carpentry. The graduates would come out being able to read and write along with a marketable skill.

Will this cost money? Sure. But tanks and weapons systems tend to be more expensive than a teacher, so we might come out ahead. And we might end up with allies instead of enemies.