PETALING JAYA: The management of a tahfiz centre where 21 students and two teachers died in a fire in 2017 have been flayed for claiming that the school had produced “23 martyrs” in the fire.
A relative of a victim said the school had failed to protect the sensitivities of the victims’ next of kin by producing a fund-raising poster in which the fire is mentioned.
The relative said the management of Tahfiz Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah at Dato Keramat in Kuala Lumpur had posted the notice online, seeking donations from the public, and had later taken it down.
The relative was angry about a sentence in the poster which said: “Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah has produced 23 martyrs in the fire on Sept 14, 2017”.
He said: “That sentence made it seem like the management was proud of the fire. I’m not sure about the family members of the other victims, but I am disappointed with that statement.”
He added: “How dare they ask for donations by claiming that they ‘produced’ martyrs.”
The tahfiz centre’s headmaster, Mohd Zahid Mahmood, said the sentence had been misinterpreted.
“Not all tahfiz schools can produce martyrs. God chooses the ones that produce martyrs, and God has produced martyrs in this tahfiz. This tahfiz was chosen. God doesn’t allow martyrdom to happen at all tahfiz schools,” he told FMT.
He confirmed that the school produced the poster on its Facebook page and had taken it down after obtaining the views of “several parties”.
The relative who lost his child in the tragedy, said it was “totally unnecessary” for the tahfiz to use that claim of “producing martyrs” to try and get donations.
“That fire was a tragedy that continues to break my heart and is still subject of a court hearing,” he said.
Headmaster Zahid said the sentence in itself was not wrong, and claimed that the issue was played up to ruin his image.
“It’s not that we want to use the students’ names. We don’t even want to collect hundreds of thousands. We just want enough for the children’s sahur and breaking of fast,” he said.
In August 2020, a teenager was sentenced by the High Court to be detained in prison at the pleasure of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, after he was found to have set the tahfiz centre on fire.
A civil suit was filed against the management by the victims’ next of kin. Both sides have failed to reach a deal over millions of ringgit in public donations sent to the tahfiz centre. - FMT
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