Most of us would scrimp and save to send our kids to other schools, whatever within our means. We need a clear declaration from our political servants that the national school system is secular, i.e., not concerned with one's religious choices!

Islamisation in national schools going overboard

G Singh: This is sad, but I am sure very prevalent. The Islamisation of Malaysian culture is ongoing, with implicit and explicit support from Umno. Many who condone this in our schools see nothing wrong with pushing their (Islamic) faith onto a supposedly secular school structure.

And our politicians wonder why fewer and fewer non-Malays (in this case, the issue is non-Muslims) are choosing to send their children to national schools.

Most of us would scrimp and save to send our kids to other schools, whatever within our means. We need a clear declaration from our political servants that the national school system is secular, i.e., not concerned with one's religious choices!

sleekk: Religion matters, studies or practices should be left off the school compound, such as reciting during assemblies. We should not mix school education with religious studies.

Any student interested in pursuing religion should do it on their own accord after school or/and outside school.

fairnessforall: National schools are not suppose to be linked to any one religion. If a parent chooses to enrol their child in a Christian school, then they are aware that there may be some teachings of Christianity involved, same with parents who enrol their children in Islamic schools.

In any case, I went to a Convent school too, but there the Muslim students were separated during assembly where they had a Muslim teacher led the assembly reciting some Muslim prayers while the other students were led by a nun and sang some hymns and the Negaraku and Rukunegara.

There was never any attempt to force any non-Christian to sing along. It was up to individual.

Azizi Khan: The question is what are you going to do about it ? This has been going on for decades, slowly poisoning young minds with the false Islamic teachings that result from BTN brainwashing to propagate "ketuanan".

You want to just sit there and watch BN win again ? Your respective representatives from your race sold you off for a few scraps long ago. Vote for the opposition and give them the chance to fix things. It won’t be immediate as some want. We have to fix 50 years of BN damage.

Pemerhati: Malaysia could learn something from the USA which is one of the most advanced and successful countries in the world where the vast majority of the people are Christians.

In the US, religion is kept completely out of the government and the public schools because the government wants to treat all its citizens fairly and equally.

If they were to incorporate elements of, say, Christianity into the schools and the administration, it would be very unfair to the non-Christian citizens as they would feel that Christian values were being imposed on them.

Unfortunately in Malaysia the BN Government seems to be hell bent on incorporating Islam into all aspects of the administration and is not in the least bothered that it is very unfair to the non-Muslims.

The people who introduce such policies are insensitive and arrogant and like the deputy PM and Minister of Education have a shallow intellect (words used by Selangor MB’s political secretary to describe Muhyddin’s mental capacity).

Geronimo: Once, national type schools were a Malaysian melting pot because we were taught using a neutral language - ENGLISH.

Today, such schools have become more religiously inclined with the aim of indoctrinating our young children to become Muslim. In the 60s, when Muslim students like Najib and Rafidah [Aziz] were enrolled in Missionary schools, neither the nuns nor the brothers brainwashed the students with Christian doctrine.

The focus was to provide quality education to the students, period. The education system today has gone from bad to worse.

Not only are the students not receiving quality education but attempts to indoctrinate them with Islamic teachings as well.

To all parents, do not send your children to these schools anymore. Send them to vernacular shools or if you afford it, private schools. Failing to do this, will condemn your children to an uncertain future and heartaches for you and the entire family.

malaysiawatch4.blogspot: I suggest that the government should grant tax rebates to those parents who do not send their children to government schools to avoid this kind of situation. Maybe RM3000 per child of school age would be a reasonable sum.

Anonymous_5fb: In essence, all religions per se are with the objective of harmonising this world and work for good of humanity.

But, this is not the case for many religionists. Many of them, be they Islamic, Christian, Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu etc, etc have overlooked this essence of their faiths and overzealously in promoting their beliefs to others with the aim of converting the others to their religions, through compulsory conversion by marriage.

This kind of thing becomes worse if politics is involved. Whether Umno-led government admits this or not, it is happening in this country, and becoming more intense since Mahathir's rule.

I do not specifically mention Islam here, as compulsory conversion through marriage is still in practised in Catholicsim and to a certain extent, Christianity. The only different is the degree of 'overzealousness' in such practices.

PuteraMalaysia: Dear concerned parent, If you have been brought up as a Muslim, and knowing that your religion is the best in this universe, will u not do your utmost best to tell and ultimately convert the non-believers?

In school, as in other areas, there have always been overzealous beings who might interpret existing rules, or simply disregard them.

Naturally, as Islam is the official religion of this country,you have to accept the fact tht the religion has permeated through every conceivable public domain since the mid 1980s.

Therefore it is simply not easy to expect our national school to change its character where non-Muslim Malaysian children will feel comfortable studying in.

So, can you tell me why non-Muslim parents still find the need to send their children to vernacular schools?

Swipenter: Apart from the Islamisation process, simultaneously the Malays are being Arabised and soon the Malay culture would be a rare commodity in this so called Tanah Melayu.

Funny that the Malays are making so much noise against western influence, defending the Malay way of life but seldom utter two words against Arabisation of their own culture.

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