Zakir Naik-run school says govt wants it shut

Management of the Islamic International School in Mazagaon, founded by under-fire preacher Zakir Naik, has alleged that the education department was “doing everything possible” to shut the school, which will leave 167 students in the lurch.
The school officials said that parents were being asked to withdraw their children from the school, saying it will be shut “any day”. The Mumbai Police have already submitted a report to the state Home department saying the school didn’t toe the prescribed line, and in fact, brainwashed students into keeping a distance from what it alleged called an “un-Islamic environment”.
The school, run by Naik’s now banned Islamic Research Foundation, runs classes from pre-nursery to high school at its campuses in Mazagaon and Chennai.“We are anyway struggling to fund even the day-to-day expenses,” said the principal, Imran Qureshi. “We had applied for registration in 2010 but were denied. Recently, a few education officers told us that our centre was unauthorised and parents were told to pull their children out of the school,” Qureshi said.
He said that hundreds of unauthorised schools were being allowed to function in the city and that targeting the Islamic International School was unfair. A Mazagaon businessman, Musharraf Armar, whose two children are students of the school, said, “The education officers want us to pull our kids out of the school. It’s December, we are in the middle of the academic year.” Another parent, Shakeel Ansari, whose daughter is a Std XII student and son studies in Std IX, said, “What is the point in disrupting our children’s academic year? I hope the matter is resolved because it is taking a toll on our children.”
State School Education and Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde told Mumbai Mirror that no student will be inconvenienced. “The school is not registered and that makes it illegal. But my intention is very clear: just because the Islamic Research Foundation has been banned, we will not let students suffer,” he said.
Confirming that the education officers “warned” parents, Tawde said, “The officials were trying to present a clear picture to the parents, trying to make them realise that the school where their kids are studying is illegal. The prime concern is the academic year of these students and we have given them options. The parents can tell us about schools of their choice or take admission in Anjuman-e-Islam.”