Director: Schoolgirl’ own free will

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KOTA KINABALU: State Education director Datuk Jame Alip yesterday denied allegations that a 16-year-old schoolgirl at SMK Kinarut has been influenced into converting to Islam.

He said the student allegedly went to the school warden and uttered the ‘Kalimah’ on her own free will.

He said even the school principal had no idea of the incident and was surprised to see the student wearing a ‘tudung’ (headscarf).

“The warden has allegedly asked her to remove the ‘tudung’,” he said.

Jame also mentioned that the student took ‘Pengajian Islam’ as one of her subjects in school and said there was nothing abnormal about this since there had been many cases of non-Muslim students taking the subject before and have not converted to Islam.

He also denied allegations that the student was not allowed to see her father in school.

“When the father came, he was able to see his daughter and was allowed to bring her to visit her mom who is ill. She later came back to the school,” he said.

When asked on the religious status of the girl following the incident, Jame said he did not know but stressed that any efforts to indoctrinate school children were not allowed in schools and warned that those found to be doing so were against legislation.

“Parents can report such matters to the police,” he said.

“I want students and teachers to respect every religion so that we can continue to live in harmony. I don’t want a situation where the feeling of uneasiness is raised,” he said.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman has said that the schoolgirl was still a Christian.

He told a national newspaper that in their inquiry into the incident, they found that the girl was still a Christian.

It was reported that the schoolgirl has however been practising the Islamic way of life and have expressed her interest in embracing Islam since she was in Primary Six.

The investigation was carried out after her father, Jilius Yapoo, 47, lodged a police report over the matter.