PUTRAJAYA: Allegations that some religious schools in Selangor have been ordered to close are baseless and irresponsible, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs), Datuk Dr Mohd Na'im Mokhtar.
He said that claims by certain parties that the government had warned private religious schools and ordered them to leave their premises were completely untrue and intended to cause anxiety among Muslims.
The government, he said, had issued a guideline following a fire incident that caused deaths at a private religious school in Kuala Lumpur in 2017.
The guidelines were enforced from Jan 1, 2021 with the aim of ensuring the safety and welfare of students and all citizens of private tahfiz institutions.
"The initiative was taken as a step so that the tragedy does not recur in any religious school in Selangor," he said in a statement today.
At the same time, the enforcement of the guidelines has received cooperation from the Selangor Al-Quran Tahfiz Institution Association which consists of 478 private religious schools.
The guidelines have been enforced by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) through the state government.
Flexibility has been given to the schools for a period of two years and during this period JAIS has issued extended registration to the schools to give them the opportunity to obtain a response from the relevant agencies.
Several previous reports mentioned that nearly 200 religious schools in Selangor had allegedly received a warning letter from the local authority to leave their rented business premises.
The instruction is said to involve more than 40,000 students at these schools. The management of the school were ordered to close on the grounds of not complying with the guidelines and SOP related to business premises.
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