KUALA LUMPUR – For more than a decade now, many Malaysian public schools have shut their canteens during the Ramadan month to avoid offending Muslim students who are fasting. This forces non-Muslim children to eat in storerooms and changing rooms.
That is why a directive by Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek that canteens in all schools with non-Muslim students remain open during Ramadan is significant. She is the first Malaysian Cabinet minister in recent memory who has firmly said that non-Muslims must be allowed to eat in canteens that will remain open. She did not budge when Islamist voices, including leaders of the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia , asked her to back down.
In previous years, only a smattering of non-Muslim politicians would complain about the canteen closures, and they would be countered by conservatives who demanded respect for Islam’s position as Malaysia’s official religion. “When I was growing up in the 1980s and the 1990s, school canteens were always open during Ramadan. It taught me to have stronger willpower and faith,” Mr Dzulkarnain Zakaria, a manager at an engineering firm in Perak, said.
For some canteen operators in Malay-dominated schools, the issue is less about faith and more about finances. A canteen operator in Kedah, who requested anonymity as he fears a backlash from the authorities, said he suffers losses during the fasting month.
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