Members of the public are urged not to doubt the madrasah, pondok schools or the Arabic medium schools by linking them to the groups with extremist ideologies such as the Islamic State (IS).

Kelantan mufti Mohamad Shukri Mohamad said such institutions had never taught nor trained the extremist groups, in fact the students were taught to respect all religious ideologies.

"We are thankful for the statement by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi that so far no madrasah in the country had become factories or training grounds for the IS militants or adopted extremist ideologies.

"It is an undeniable statement because the religious or Arabic schools scattered throughout the country had never taught the students to adopt extremist ideologies," he said when met at his office in Kota Baru today.

On July 9, Zahid was quoted as saying that the Home Ministry and the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) always monitored all the madrasah in the country to ensure that these study centres were not involved in activities of the IS militant groups.

He was reported to have said that so far monitoring by the police and the respective state Islamic Religious Departments found that no madrasah was involved with the IS militant activities.

- Bernama