PETALING JAYA, April 28 — More than 600 tahfiz schools in the country are not registered with the state religious authorities. The shocking revelation comes following the death of 11-year-old Mohamad Thaqif Amin Mohd Gaddafi in Johor on Wednesday. The religious school he attended in Kota Tinggi was among those unregistered. National Institute of Tahfiz Al-Quran president Mohd Zahid Mahmood said Madrasah Tahfiz Al Jauhar was in the midst of getting approval from the state reli

In a landmark decision, it reminds that judiciary acts as a bulwark of the constitution in ensuring that powers of the executive and legislature are kept within their intended limit. PETALING JAYA: The 1988 amendment to the Federal Constitution to check the powers of the judiciary is contrary to the basic structure of the supreme law of the land, a recent Federal Court ruling said. Justice Zainun Ali said the amendment undermined the principle of separation of powers and inde

It was reported in the media on April 16 that Perkasa, a Malay right-wing group has honoured fugitive Indian preacher Zakir Naik with its warrior award for his contributions towards the struggle of Islam. This comes days after reports that India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has decided to seek an Interpol notice against Naik citing his “objectionable and subversive” elements in his speeches. Perkasa had previously given the award to former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir

We wish to take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of Education (MoE) in funding a radical approach towards English, as expressed in Wave 2 of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025. We hope this funding will continue in Budget 2018 as more schools agree to undertake the Highly Immersive Programme (HIP) and the Dual Language Programme (DLP). It will not be an overnight success nor a fly-by-night exercise but instead, a gradual outcome can be expected as time goes on a

KUALA LUMPUR, April 14 — Malaysia continues to strictly control religious practices, with an annual study grouping it together with other Muslim-majority countries practising “very high” restrictions, such as Saudi Arabia, Brunei, and Turkey. The study, published on Tuesday by US-based think tank Pew Research Centre, found that Malaysia’s religious controls worsened in 2015, scoring 8.0 out of 10 points on the Government Restriction Index (GRI) compared to 7.0 the previous ye

PETALING JAYA: A PAS lawmaker is getting a tongue-lashing from rights groups for suggesting that out-of-wedlock pregnancies be punished by caning. Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin, a mem­­ber of the G25 group of eminent Ma­­lays, said it indicated a worrying obsession with punishment. “They are obsessed with punishment instead of ways to improve the welfare of Muslims. They think punishing Muslims will solve the world’s problems,” she said. She was commenting on Pasir Puteh MP Datuk