THE Higher Education Ministry should probe if Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) is indeed coercing indigenous non-Muslim Bumiputera undergraduates from Sabah and Sarawak to attend Islamic dakwah-related events with the ultimate aim of getting them embracing the faith.
This follows a damning revelation by author Preeta Samarasan who is enraged with “forced attendance” of non-Muslim students at such events.
“I’ve heard, from friends who work with indigenous Malaysians that UiTM requires students in certain degree programmes (eg Islamic studies) to fulfill a conversion quota – ie a minimum number of non-Muslims have to convert – before they can graduate,” penned the Batu Gajah-born author.
“For this dakwah requirement, these students are bussed into the East Malaysian interior.”
Preeta whose maiden English novel Evening Is the Whole Day won the Hopwood Novel Award in 2009 further claimed that such forced conversion “is also happening *right on campus* openly”.
“This event appears to have been advertised publicly; it’s not some surreptitious backdoor conversion operation,” she fumed while pointing to an allegation by an UiTM undergraduate that the higher learning institution “is forcing non-Muslim Sabah and Sarawak Bumiputera to attend spiritual seminar in mosque”.
“What is the Ministry doing while such cavalier disregard for freedom of religion in Malaysia is paraded right under their noses?”
Apparently, Preeta’s revelation has reached the attention of human rights activist and lawyer Siti Kasim who has also demanded an answer from the Higher Education Ministry.
Interesting, a few commenters in Siti Kasim’s post have attested to the claims made by Preeta: – Jan 13, 2025
