Eliminate Islamic Schools, Government Of India: We Need More Members Than Imam Masjid

Islamic school in India, Al-Ameen Academy in the state of Assam, India (Facebook / alameenacademy)

JAKARTA - The Indian government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist party, has passed a law to abolish Islamic schools in the state of Assam. This was done because according to the local government, Islamic schools could not provide quality education.

The state's Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that more than 700 schools known as madrassas will be closed in April, according to Reuters on Thursday. The reason, said Sarma, was because India needed more experts than mosque imams.

"We need more doctors, police officers, bureaucrats and teachers, from the minority Muslim community than imams for mosques," said Sarma.

Therefore, the owner of the policy will also change Islamic schools into ordinary schools. This is because the government is of the opinion that existing Islamic schools cannot prepare prospective students to compete in the world. Especially because the graduates only think about the relationship with God alone.

Got rejected

The birth of the regulation suddenly received resistance from opposition parties and half of Indian society. They are skeptical of the idea of removing Islamic schools as merely a mouthpiece for a movement to sweep Muslims off Indian soil.

"The idea is to sweep out Muslims," said Wajed Ali Choudhury, a lawmaker from the opposition Congress party.

Earlier, more than 100 retired civil servants and senior diplomats had pressed the government in Uttar Pradesh for regulations that were detrimental to Muslims. They asked the government to revoke a new law that tries to criminalize forced religious conversion of brides. In which case, the law appears to have been deliberately aimed at Indian Muslims.