Christian student made to wear headscarf, join Muslim prayers at Negri school, say sources

Several incidents involving non-Muslim students being subjected to Islamic rules have surfaced in recent times. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, November 15, 2014.

Following allegations of Muslim students being used to subtly propagate Islam to their non-Muslim peers in secondary schools, fresh claims have surfaced that a Christian student at a primary school in Negri Sembilan was forced to wear a tudung (headscarf) and join a nasyid group.

A source close to the school told The Malaysian Insider the 12-year-old student from Sabah was also coerced into joining a Muslim prayer session at a camp she had attended recently.

"All this happened without the parents' knowledge and permission," said the source.

The source also said that when the matter came to light, school authorities told the teachers and students to keep it under wraps.

But the school’s headmaster, Yunus Ismail, denied that the student was forced to don a tudung or forced to participate in the nasyid programmes.

“I have asked the student about it. She was not forced by her teachers. She wore the tudung willingly. We do not force our non-Muslim students to join the nasyid programmes, either,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Yunus said the matter was resolved two weeks ago, and that it was “not a big issue”.

“I also met her parents, and they have no problems with the whole matter. I believe that several teachers are trying to make this into an issue,” he said.

The girl’s mother, when approached, appeared unnerved by queries over the incidents.

"I don't want to make it a big issue. I don't want my daughter to be shunned in school or get into trouble," she said.

The source said most parents of students at the school were uneducated or had very little education and were also poor. Some worked in nearby oil palm estates.

"The question is, why was a non-Muslim girl forced or encouraged to join Muslim activities and made to wear a headscarf?"

"Why aren't the teachers and headmaster in the school sensitive to the non-Muslim students? Is it because there are not many of them?" said the source.

It was learnt that the predominantly Muslim school has about 400-500 students, out of whom only seven are non-Muslims.

"The child is a minor, so how could this have happened to her without her parents’ permission or knowledge?" the source said, questioning the motive behind the incidents.

Incidents or attempts to convert non-Muslim students in schools are not new and this year alone, similar claims have been made.

In June, Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS) president Datuk R.S. Mohan Shan claimed that Muslim students were being used to propagate Islam subtly to their non-Muslim peers in secondary schools.

During a dialogue with the National Unity Consultative Council, Mohan said one school had set a provocative question in an Islamic Studies paper last year.

The question, he said, was: "What are the ways to convert your friends?" (Cara-cara mengislamkan kawan-kawan anda).

"The school would not have framed such a question if that agenda is not part of the syllabus in Islamic studies," he said.

"The authorities cannot subtly use Muslim students to influence their non-Muslim counterparts with the intention to convert them.”

There were also claims of covert religious conversion attempts of non-Muslim students at a school in Kuching, Sarawak by a Muslim NGO from the peninsula.

The students were said to have been placed under an "Anak Angkat" (adoption) programme run by the NGO at a school in Kuching.

The parents had complained that the programme, attended by mostly non-Muslim students in May this year, had all its talks conducted by “ustaz” (religious teachers) who spoke about Islamic religious matters to the Christian students.

The state's outspoken minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing had said then that the programme, held every Saturday since March, was a covert attempt to convert the students.

He demanded that the Public Service Commission investigate allegations that two teachers from the school had aided the group in conducting the programme and had coaxed the students to attend the programme under the guise of it being a “co-curriculum” activity.

“How could religious topics like the difference between 'air zam zam' which Muslims believe in, and the holy water Christians believe in, and questioning the sainthood of Mother Teresa, be discussed, if this is a school-sanctioned programme?” Masing asked.

The Sarawak government later suspended the "Anak Angkat" programme but claimed that the whole issue had been a misunderstanding.

- TMI