This article explores South African madrassahs (Islamic religious schools) with a specific focus on if radicalization and extremism exist within the schools. This study collected interviews in two major districts in the Wester Cape province, South Africa. The interviews focused on educators for grades 2-10 at madrassahs. Based on reviewing the transcripts of the interviews, the preliminary analysis concluded that educators in madrassahs consider their primary function to inculcate habits dutiful to Islam over preparing learners as democratic citizens. The author argues that madrassahs do indeed teach respect for human and non-human life, and encourage open debate and discussion, and therefore do not teach values that are against democratic citizenship. The author also points out that the learning style of many madrassah systems in South Africa is based on rote learning. Rote learning, the author argues, can potentially lead to dogmatic understanding of values, which could limit students’ exposure to the wider discourse. The author concludes that madrassahs in South Africa should integrate values of democratic citizenship into their education programs, within the context of Islam, in order to more proactively reduce the risk of radicalization.