Western commentators post-9/11 often perceive madaris as places of radical revivalism with a connotation of anti-Americanism and radical extremism, frequently associated in the Western press with Wahhabi attitudes toward non-Muslims. In Arabic the word madrasa simply means "school" and does not imply a political or religious affiliation, radical or otherwise. Madaris have varied curricula, and are not all religious. Some madaris in India, for example, have a secularised identity. Although early madaris were founded primarily to gain "knowledge of God" they also taught subjects such as mathematics and poetry. For example, in the Ottoman Empire, "Madrasahs had seven categories of sciences that were taught, such as: styles of writing, oral sciences like the Arabic language, grammar, rhetoric, and history and intellectual sciences, such as logic." This is similar to the Western world, in which universities began as institutions of the Catholic church.

What is the common western perception of the teaching received at madaris?