Camping trips for students of two secondary schools here are being used by an unidentified Muslim group to preach to Christians on Islam, a state lawmaker alleged today.
An irate Balai Ringin assemblyman Snowdan Lawan today complained that Muslim preachers from peninsular Malaysia had conducted “seminars” during the camps in which they spoke to the mainly Iban Christian students about such religious matters as the differences between the Christian holy water and “air zam zam”, and the Roman Catholic Saint Mother Teresa.
“Air zam zam” refers to water from the Well of ZamZam located in the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia, which Muslims consider to have miraculous properties.
Snowdan said the allegations were brought to his attention by the school’s Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), which accused the Muslim groups of conducting the preaching via so-called “Kem Anak Angkat” and “Haluan Malaysia” programmes.
“About 50 students from SMK Balai Ringin and some more from SMK Serian participated in the programme. What irks us was that most of the students were non-Muslim. I asked the school principal, he was also not aware of such programme, leading us to conclude that the programme was not sanctioned by the school or the Education Department.
“We demand an explanation from the Education Department as to why such programme was carried out without the knowledge of the school,” said Snowdan.
No comments:
Post a Comment