KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 — State-backed Islamic schools in Malaysia helped create a Muslim community tolerant of those from other creeds and races, PAS asserted today after criticism from a non-Muslim Barisan Nasional (BN) component party.

The chief of the Islamist Opposition party’s scholar wing said religious or "agama” schools were agents of unity, rubbishing a Gerakan leader’s claim that they were the cause of division between Muslims and non-Muslims.

"Agama schools have acted as agents that unified our society through Islamic teachings that values unity and justice among humans,” Datuk Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali said in a statement.

"The contribution of religious education at the Agama schools contributed largely to the creation of a Muslim community that is tolerant that they accept the presence of other nationalities, races and followers of other faiths.

"This is proven throughout the country's history,” he added.

Gerakan vice-president Dominic Lau reportedly told a press conference yesterday that Islamic religious schools pose a bigger threat to unity than vernacular schools.

Lau based his claim on his reading of the new education blueprint, which he argued implied that only Bumiputera could be enrolled in government-funded religious schools.

The Bumiputera refers to Malaysia’s Malay community who are also Muslim going by the Federal Constitution’s definition, but also include the natives of Sabah and Sarawak, who are free to embrace other religions.

Mohd Khairuddin in his response called the Gerakan leader's assertion "emotional, racist, and prejudicial”.

"It could be the cause of disunity… in fact it is not far off if we say it sounds seditious and capable of dividing us,” he said of Lau’s statement.

Lau's disapproval of Agama schools also drew condemnation from Amanah, the PAS splinter party.

One of its vice-presidents Mujahid Yusof Rawa, in an interview with online news portal FMT, said the deep racial division within Malaysia was the product of a failed central education system.

He argued that the government lacked political will to produce a progressive school curricula that would inculcate genuine integration.