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Saturday, March 28, 2015

Teachers in conversion bid ignorant of the law, says Sarawak minister

Sabrina Ngumbang's mother, Roslen Umbil (left) and other relatives with the baju kurung school uniform and prayer clothing the two teachers allegedly gave her upon her conversion to Islam. – Pic courtesy of Bit Surang, March 28, 2015.Sabrina Ngumbang's mother, Roslen Umbil (left) and other relatives with the baju kurung school uniform and prayer clothing the two teachers allegedly gave her upon her conversion to Islam. – Pic courtesy of Bit Surang, March 28, 2015.
The two teachers at a secondary school in Miri, Sarawak, who had allegedly attempted to convert a Dayak student to Islam will be "disciplined" even as a Sarawak minister urged that they be ordered out of the state.
Outspoken Sarawak Minister Tan Sri James Masing said if the two teachers of SMK Lutong were from the peninsula, they should be transferred back.
"We don't need teachers who deviate from their duties. We must nip this problem in the bud before it gets out of control," Masing told The Malaysian Insider.
"It would be most be most disappointing and unacceptable for Muslim teachers teaching in Sarawak to use their position to convert non-Muslim students to Muslims."
The state's minister in charge of education matters, Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said the teachers would face “administrative punishment”.
Fatimah, who is also Sarawak's welfare, women and family development minister, said the punishment, to be decided by the school, “could just be a warning”.
Their "sin", she said, was being ignorant of the law.
"They did not know they could not convert a minor without the consent of her parents, and causing anxiety that had the potential to lead to religious friction," she said after meeting the two teachers from the peninsula, the student Sabrina Ngumbang, her parents, aunt, grandparents, the school principal and a senior Miri division education official at the school yesterday.
Fatimah also blamed social media and political parties for taking advantage of Sabrina's lowly educated family in distorting the whole episode.
She said the attempt to convert Sabrina started when the girl mentioned to one of the religious teachers who was just posted to the school last year of her interest in Islam “after hearing so many good things” about the religion from her Muslim school friends.
The new teacher then mentioned it to another religious teacher at the same school.
“The older teacher then called this girl (Sabrina) and asked if she was really interested and if she had consulted her grandfather about it.
“She said 'Yes',” Fatimah quoted the teacher as telling her in the meeting.
“This is where I told them they were wrong. In matters as sensitive as race and religion, they could not just rely on the words of a minor.
“They should have spoken to her parents. As teachers, they should realise that we have laws on conversion of minors and consent would The letter, allegedly written by Ngumbang Achu, the father of Sabrina, complaining about the two teachers who attempted to convert his underage daughter to Islam last week. – The Malaysian Insider pic, March 28, 2015. The letter, allegedly written by Ngumbang Achu, the father of Sabrina, complaining about the two teachers who attempted to convert his underage daughter to Islam last week. – The Malaysian Insider pic, March 28, 2015.have to be obtained, even if the teachers had managed to bring the student to the Majlis Agama Islam to register her conversion,” Fatimah said.
“I reminded the teachers that when it comes to handling race and religion, they have to tread very carefully. We don't want teachers to create disharmony."
Sabrina had been raised by her grandparents since she was three months old as her father, a rubbish collector, could not afford to care for her.
Fatimah, a Chinese convert herself, said the manner the teachers went about trying to convert the girl had also aroused suspicion.
She said when they found an opportunity to get Sabrina have a better understanding of the religion – at a thanksgiving gathering – they sent one of their husbands to collect her from her house.
“That aroused Sabrina's aunt's suspicion who asked why a man was picking up her niece."
Fatimah said the man, “so unlike a Malaysian”, was ill-mannered and did not bother greeting the aunt or other family members.
“There was no salam (greetings) and the family was slighted. And when she (Sabrina) returned home, she had RM250 and Muslim prayer clothing.”
In her police statement, Sabrina said she was given RM200 by one of the teachers and RM50 by those present who witnessed Sabrina reciting prayers to signify that she had embraced Islam in a house in the Samling residential estate in Kuala Baram.
The money was to be used to buy prayer clothing.
But before she could go to the Islamic religious department to register her alleged conversion on March 16, her grandparents brought the clothing she was given to the church she attended – the Methodist church in Tudan – for verification.
From then on, things started unravelling.
Fatimah said while the grandparents had sought the church's help, political parties got involved reading about the attempted conversion.
“They (Sabrina's family) were forced to lodge the police report,” Fatimah said but would not want to disclose who made them do so.
On the letter Sabrina's 43-year-old father Ngumbang Achu “wrote” to the school principal complaining about the teachers, Fatimah said she doubted the lowly educated Ngumbang could write such a letter.
Fatimah said the whole episode should be a lesson for teachers.
Last year, parents of a rural school in Serian complained of an attempt by a peninsula-based Muslim group to convert poor Dayak students there under the guise of school camps.
The incident was later brushed off as a “misunderstanding” but nonetheless the state minister in charge of Islamic affairs, Datuk Daud Abdul Rahman, ordered that the school camps be discontinued.
- TMI

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