In reply to article on "Creating militants in our school?"- Muhamad Afzamiman Aripin

SEPT 5 ― I wrote this article after I went through another article entitled “Creating militants in our school?”. It has caught my attention. Since it is a question, I think the columnist needs some clarification or somebody to answer that question. By the way, this is just my own opinion.

There are few concerns highlighted in the article after the writer found a Facebook posting few weeks ago showing a group of school children not wearing school uniforms or ordinary clothing but rather wearing garments that he assumed more suitable for “radical elements”, “fighters” and “Islamic State militants”. What he means by “radical elements”, “fighters” and “Islamic State militants” is when he saw those kids wearing veils, headbands and holding signs and placards written with words such as “Save Gaza”.

With all his “detective-like” concern, he figured out that the photos were taken from an elite government boarding school in Malaysia, specifically in Langkawi.

For him, it is an alarming development. It is understandable that they are imitating or getting into spirit of Hamas fighters, showing solidarity and support to Palestinians, but also brings to mind of other radical groups.  This is his big concern, in which the spirit might bring the students into misunderstanding or misleading actions in the future.

My respond to his article ― the columnist is making his own assumptions from his own thoughts (Hyphotesis). He created his own question from the few photos found on the internet (Research Question), googling for proves of where the event was held (literature review), drew his own conclusion, and published in the newspaper to create more questions among Malaysian readers (Maybe a “Concept Paper”; hoping for feedbacks and actions).  There are also few brilliant suggestions for improvement. It impressed me a lot as a researcher in some ways.

However, I wonder if the writer has done a deep investigation regarding the event itself before condemning their clothing or whatever their intentions may be. Has he figured out who is involved, what are the activities and how the peace message has been delivered? What are the contents? Are there any militants’ element in that event? All of these questions need to be clarified by going to the right people; in this case be it, the school or the event organiser, in order to get a crystal-clear answer before disseminating the thought and assumptions in public.

Indeed, I cannot agree more with the columnist’s suggestions. It is true that two-hour lecture will never be enough to disseminate the right message. It is good to have classroom discussions, debates, arguments, conflict managements, finding resolutions, reading newspapers and watching news and all other means of education. Yet we must start with something of what we call ― awareness.

A friend of mine did a lot of tours from one school to another, giving clarification, updates and concerns just to ignite the awareness. I am not sure if he was involved with the event that has been mentioned above.  Usually some of the points that he highlights during his tours are;

1. The history of Palestinian land
2. The story humanist activists ( Such as; Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall)
3. Palestine prominent figures (Syeikh Ahmad Yassin and Yahya Ayyash)
4. The Life of teenagers in West Bank and Gazza
5. Current conflict (How it started, brutality of Israeli army, etc)
6. Our Roles (There are six; education, donation, spread and share the right news, get involved in humanity activity, boycotting and praying)

I cannot see any “militant seed” in every single point but education and support to humanity.  We cannot deny that few Malaysians get involved in militancy based on the records of The Royal Malaysian Police, but pointing the gun to everyone wearing veils and garments, “Beware he or she might be a terrorist!”― is very insulting. Instead of showing our concern about seeding a militant thought in school, we accidently exposed our Islamophobia-like symptoms, a disease that consists of prejudice and hatred. Good hypothesis, good research questions and good literature reviews are not enough for generalisation.  

- See more at: http://m.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/answering-creating-militants-in-our-school-article-muhamad-afzamiman-aripin#sthash.BiJlnjX3.dpuf