KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Islamic schools are a key component in the government’s nation-building effort as they can produce religious-minded professionals, Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said.

The deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said society must remove its prejudices that Islamic religious schools were only good for producing religious studies teachers, or ustaz and ustazah as they are known locally, Malay broadsheet Utusan Malaysia reported today.

“For example, the government created USIM (Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia) because we do not want the products of religious school streams to focus on just one area. We want to ensure their marketability in many fields.

“The government desires for them to become experts in medicine, engineering, economics, banking or law but at the same time to have an Islamic-minded soul,” he was quoted saying.

Asyraf Wajdi reportedly said this was in line with the government’s Islamisation agenda.

He added that the government will work to strengthen all its Islamic religious schools, known as Sekolah Mene­ngah Agama Negeri (SMAN) and Sekolah Menengah Agama Rakyat (SMAR) to be on par with the non-religious stream schools.

The paper reported Datuk Othman Mustapha, the director-general of the Islamic Development Department saying there are currently 168 SMAN and SMAR nationwide with a student population of 64,769.

Islamic school graduates have come under the hammer in the wake of the current economic climate with some leaders questioning the federal government’s religious education policy.

Most recently, Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem cited religious studies scholars in his criticism of Putrajaya for failing to produce marketable graduates.