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Published on July 22, 2007

"Currently, only permanent religious teachers have their fingerprints taken and their backgrounds registered by the authorities. The government should require all teachers and ustads to be registered," said Abdulrohni Kahama, secretary of the association.

Religious teachers employed on a contract basis are not subject to the rule. The proposal to register them as well will help the authorities to prevent violence by ill-intentioned religious teachers and ustads, he said.

Abdulrohni was responding to closure of the Islamic Burapha private religious school in Narathiwat by the authorities after weapons and bomb-making materials were found hidden in the school compound. Seven teachers were detained and interrogated in connection with the violence in the province.

The school's administrators have complained that all the teachers and students should not be punished for the alleged wrongdoing of some of them.

Police and military officials have defended the school's closure, saying it was a gathering place for insurgents, and warned that more arrests were likely in the case.

The authorities asked nearby religious schools to admit students from Islamic Burapha, but Abdulrohni said some of these schools were reluctant to do so for fear that they might be involved in the violence.

Further, few students wanted to move. "Out of 220 students at Islamic Burapha school, only 20 are willing to move to new schools. The rest are not. These students and their families are not happy about the authorities closing the school," he said.