LAWYER Siti Kasim said she has nothing against religious people appointed as ministers, but only wanted religious-centric teaching to be reduced in national schools. 

Siti, who is also a human rights campaigner and advocates for the rights of the lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual community, said her objection to Bersatu’s Dr Maszlee Malik’s appointment as education minister was because of concerns over the education of children in the country. 

“This is my concern about the future of Malaysia, it’s nothing about being religious or not. I know about the Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, he is religious, and Mat Sabu (from Amanah).

“Why don’t I make noise about them? Purely because they are not shaping the minds of our young. The one who is in charge of our education department is so important,” she told reporters when met at the Sri Hartamas fire and rescue station. 

Maszlee’s appointment as education minister recently sparked debates and criticism, especially his alleged support of controversial preacher Dr Zakir Naik. 

He responded to his critics by saying being religious was not a crime, and clarified that he only supported Zakir’s right to freedom of speech not the Indian preachers extremist views. 

“His answer did not convince us, of course, being religious is not a crime, and not to be religious is also not a crime, but that’s not the answer that we want. 

“As somebody who is in charge of our young, we want somebody to commit himself to try and reduce the religious centric nature in our schools, because to me that’s what causes division between races. 

“If the government wants all the races to be together, they have to reduce a lot of this religious-centric teaching,” she said. 

She also added that religious teaching should be done privately and not at schools. 

“This is my concern because now you can see the reaction from young people when they talk about religion, they cannot accept different kind of interpretation and this is very dangerous for our nation,” she said. 

Maszlee, a former assistant professor at the International Islamic University of Malaysia, has a PhD in good governance from the University of Durham, United Kingdom. 

His background in Islamic governance has made some activists uneasy while his alleged Salafist leanings have also attracted criticism. – May 26, 2018.