KOCHI: No student was converted into Islam at Peace International School, and we have no intention to carry out religious conversion, said M M Akbar, managing director of Peace Educational Foundation. “There are only a few non-Muslim students studying in the school. Among students of the two Peace International Schools - at Chakkarapparamb-Kochi and Thathappally - only nine are non-Muslims,” he said.
Speaking at a press conference here on Thursday, Akbar said though the school was functioning without accreditation of the CBSE and the State Education Department, it had been following CBSE syllabus. “From Class-IX onwards, we will get affiliation from the CBSE. The textbooks distributed to the students have been published by Burooj Realisation, a Mumbai-based education research organisation. Their books are followed by several CBSE schools in the State,” he said.
The school had landed in trouble after the police filed an FIR against its management for teaching bjectionable subjects intended to disrupt communal harmony.
On being pointed out about the controversial lessons in the Class-II textbook of the school about religious conversion, Akbar said the academic committee of the school had found that the ‘activity practice’ published in the book to be inappropriate for students studying in Class-II.
“It is not appropriate for that age. Hence, we decided to withdraw the text. In the meantime, we came to know from the media that the police had registered case for teaching objectionable lessons,” he added, while admitting that the controversial textbook was being taught in the school for the past two years. “This lesson should be taught in the way the religion suggests. However, we found the text to be inappropriate for that age,” he said.
Akbar, meanwhile, claimed that Merin Jacob aka Mariam, who allegedly joined the IS neither had any link with the school nor did she worked as a teacher there. “Merin visited the school once for attending an interview for the post of teacher. Thrikkaripur-native Rashid Abdulla, who is also alleged to have joined the IS, was an employee of the school. He quit the job on his own for pursuing higher education abroad. We have no links with the IS, which propagates an ideology that is entirely anti-Islam,” added Akbar.
However, he admitted that Merin had visited Niche of Truth, a religious organisation headed by him in Kochi, and that she had acquaintance with Islamic preacher Zakir Naik who is heading the Islamic Research Foundation, Mumbai.