FT Minister shuts tahfiz embroiled in molest cases, says no more illegal schools

KUALA LUMPUR : Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad has ordered the closure of the Kepong tahfiz (religious Islamic school) where at least nine students were allegedly molested by its principal.

He also said Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) would no longer tolerate any illegal tahfiz in KL.

"We relaxed our stance all this while whenever we heard a particular place was being used as a religious institution.

"That is the wrong approach," he said, after launching the first-of-its-kind KL strata community meditation centre at Menara PT80 here Tuesday (Sept 25).

Khalid said such Islamic institutions carried the image of the religion, but the recent case involving this particular tahfiz reflected poorly on Islam.

"We are going to strengthen the rules on setting up boarding schools and tahfiz," he said.

Khalid also urged parents to find out if a particular tahfiz was registered with either the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) or DBKL before sending their children there.