Non-Muslim kids ‘told to eat in toilet’

A young Muslim boy helps his friend to put on a turban at a mosque in Ampang, suburbs of Kuala Lumpur on July 11, 2013.

A young Muslim boy helps his friend to put on a turban at a mosque in Ampang, suburbs of Kuala Lumpur on July 11, 2013.

Published Jul 23, 2013

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 Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian education officials on Tuesday ordered an investigation into a school that allegedly made non-Muslim pupils eat in the shower room as the predominantly Islamic nation observed Ramadaan.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jalamuddin said officials had ordered the improvised eating area to be closed after photographs posted on Facebook showed students eating lunch in what appeared to be a shower room of an elementary school near Kuala Lumpur.

“I have instructed the director general to investigate the issue of non-Muslim students asked to eat in the toilet,” Education Minister Muyiddin Yassin wrote on Twitter.

Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan said he received a report saying the school canteen was closed for renovation, but noted that transferring it to the shower room “is not the right thing to do.”

“If the canteen is under renovation, a proper place should have been identified, surely, not the changing room,” he said in his Twitter account.

“The ministry views such issues with gravity and will surely take stern action to ensure it's not repeated.”

About 61 percent of Malaysia's more than 29 million inhabitants people are Muslims. Others profess to different religions including Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. - Sapa-dpa

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