Abdulrohni Kahama, secretary of an association of privately run religious schools in the South, said the MPs made the suggestion without knowing anything about Islamic education in the region. The suggestion to get rid of the schools, known locally as pondoks, went against the government’s policy of supporting the religious education of local Muslims, he said.

“Why do we need to give up the schools, as the government has already allocated some Bt70 million to develop a total of 300 pondoks since last year?” he said.

Abdulrohni believes the government will continue to support religious education at pondoks, but is concerned that “such a ridiculous idea by the MPs will confuse local people and spark anti-government sentiment through a lack of understanding of local culture”.

Nimanaseh Sama-ari, president of the Youth Muslim Association of Thailand, said the MPs’ suggestion could hurt the feelings of local Muslims, as they might think the government wanted to close their educational facilities. Many youths in the deep South may leave home to study Islam abroad, as they may think the government has banned them from studying religion, he said.

The Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) yesterday also slammed the idea, saying it would create more hatred for government among the Muslim community. In a statement to The Nation from its HQ in Europe, the exiled group said: “Pondoks are part of our culture and tok gurus, or the pondoks’ principals, are the religious focus of our community. To close them down means to bury our culture alive.”