The Muslim Professionals Forum (MPF) regrets Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik's recommendation that religious matters be kept out of national schools if this means abolishing religious instruction to Muslim students.

The assertion that the teaching of Islam in national schools deters non-Muslims from enrolling their children into national schools may have its substance, however we think much of that has to do with ingrained prejudice and problems inherent within the national schools system.

Some degree of religious instruction has always been an element of our educational system, whether they are schools established by Christian missions or national ones. It fulfils the holistic educational needs of our children as we parents perceive them.

Children of other faiths receive instruction in moral education while Muslim students have their religious classes. The recent initiative to introduce the teaching of Mandarin and Tamil in national schools is indicative of the Education Ministry's concern for further improving national integration.

While it is true that the family plays an important role in imparting religious values to impressionable children, instruction in the basic fundamentals of Islam, rituals of worship, study of the sacred texts, religious morality and Islamic history have to be done by qualified teachers.

The national schools have admirably fulfilled this need without altering their character into that of religious schools. Muslim parents accept this compromise and send their children for extra religious lessons outside the normal school hours.

It is utterly insensitive to demand that religious instruction for Muslims be scrapped from national schools - if that is the intent of Lim's recommendations.

There are probably more valid reasons why non-Malay parents are reluctant to send their children to national schools especially those outside the affluent middle-class areas. And this has more to do with the school's academic performance, class size, facilities, quality of the teaching faculty, morale of teachers and standards of discipline rather than religious studies.

These are equally the concerns of many Muslim parents, some of whom are willing to pay for private education or send their children to Chinese schools.

While we urge that the government take immediate measures to remedy these pressing problems, various aspects of religious instruction for Muslims need to be tailored to mould young Muslims with Islamic spirituality (iman), examplary behaviour (soleh wa musleh) and intellectual strength (ilm) to prepare them as citizens of a modern, pluralistic Malaysia.

The writer is a founding member of the Muslim Professionals Forum.