KOTA BHARU: Kelantan police have detected several madrasahs (religious schools) in the state that are believed to be locations for money laundering activities, involving millions of ringgit in donations from external parties, including product founders.
Kelantan police chief Datuk Mohd Yusoff Mamat told Sinar Harian this is based on information received and monitoring being carried out in collaboration with the Kelantan Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIK).
According to him, checks found that a large portion of the madrasahs, pondoks (traditional religious schools), and tahfiz centres (Quran memorisation centres) in the state are not registered with MAIK, raising concerns that unhealthy activities exist behind their operations.
"Based on information, roughly half of the madrasahs and pondoks in Kelantan are unregistered with MAIK. When they are not registered, we are concerned that these places are being misused for activities such as money laundering and so on," he said during a press conference on Tuesday (Oct 21).
He was speaking earlier after officiating the Monthly Assembly at the Kelantan Contingent Police Headquarters (IPK) here.
Mohd Yusoff said that police received information that individuals with the title 'founder', both from within and outside Kelantan, come to the state allegedly to donate to religious institutions in hopes of obtaining prayers and blessings.
He said some are willing to contribute up to millions of ringgit, citing the reason of investing for "shares in the afterlife."
"However, we are concerned if the good intentions are being exploited by certain parties who use the madrasah as a channel for money laundering activities. Nevertheless, investigations are still ongoing to determine the extent of the involvement of these religious study centres in the activity," he said.
Therefore, he advised the public to first check the registration status of any madrasah, pondok, or tahfiz centre before channelling donations.
"Also ensure that the teachers teaching there have credentials to avoid the misuse of titles like ustaz or wali which could lead to religious deviation," he said.
He added that police will continue to cooperate with MAIK in monitoring not only the issue of money laundering but also the possibility of religious deviation occurring among the unregistered religious study centres in the state.
