Malaysian Govt eliminates funding for Islamic schools

Straits Times ^

[DeaconBenjamin]

KUALA LUMPUR - The government has stopped giving grants and aid to privately-run Islamic religious schools because they have been teaching hatred of government leaders.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad cited the case of an Umno member's child who told his father to remove a picture of Dr Mahathir.

'He has learnt such things in what is deemed a religious school.

'So, we are not going to give them any more money,' he said.

Dr Mahathir said the government would not give any money to the schools until it was able to distinguish the genuine religious ones from the political ones.

He added that there was already a syllabus for religious studies but said the problem was that the schools did not use it. --The Star/Asia News Network

[ChadGore]

bump

[Clara Lou]

It's one step in the right direction, anyway. Lotta steps left, though.

[Dialup Llama]

>KUALA LUMPUR - The government has stopped giving grants and aid to privately-run Islamic religious schools because they have been teaching hatred of government leaders.

What gave you the clue, guys?

[ChadGore]

bump

[cardinal4]

Guess it's up to Saudi Arabia to pick up the ball so those kids get a proper education. </heavy sarcasm>

Wasnt Saudi money prevalent in the Yemeni school where Taliban John went to?

[STD]

They will only do this until it becomes safe to start funding the madrassas again. They are not allies or trustworthy friends.

[valkyrieanne]

Looks like Malaysia discovered that vouchers for religious schools also allowed jihadi schools to flourish. When will we figure it out here?

[DeaconBenjamin]

Then why are we doing this: Boeing offers latest fighter jets to Malaysia, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/776500/posts

[JasonC]

"the government would not give any money to the schools until it was able to distinguish the genuine religious ones from the political ones"

They noticed they were "political" because criticism of the leader appeared. Of course, they are political, and the policy outcome is perfectly justified. They only decided based on political expediancy of the thing for themselves personally, but I suppose gift horses aren't looked in the mouth.