Parents protest Islamic school's finances

PARENTS and ex-students yesterday gathered at the nation's largest Muslim school to protest against alleged mismanagement of funds.

Malek Fahd school

PARENTS and ex-students yesterday gathered at the nation's largest Muslim school to protest against the alleged mismanagement of the college's finances.

The group, mostly mothers, gathered in front of the Malek Fahd school in Sydney's southwest amid ongoing financial concerns at the school of more than 2000 students, which is managed by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils.

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli froze the school's state funding this month, as well as demanding the repayment of $9 million of improperly appropriated funds that went into the coffers of the school's owner, AFIC. Three-quarters of the school's funding comes from the state and commonwealth governments.

Last year The Australian revealed the school had paid millions in inflated backdated rent and "management fees" to AFIC, with a later government audit finding no value for the payments.

The NSW government has now instructed the NSW Police and the corporate watchdog the Australian Securities & Investments Commission to investigate the school.

While the school management had initially claimed it would fight the government's ruling, AFIC is now understood to be planning to raise school fees substantially to force parents to foot the bill.

Many parents and ex-students were too fearful to speak out yesterday. One AFIC-aligned administrator, Amjad Mehbood, a "project manager consultant" at the school, warned parents to stay away from yesterday's protest as they arrived, with SMS messages and announcements falsely claiming the protest had been cancelled.

Members of school management were also seen filming women protesters in front of the school on mobile phones.

School principal Intaj Ali would not comment yesterday, but is understood to be supporting the removal of the AFIC management. Asked to comment yesterday on the investigation at the school and attempts to shut the protest down, Mr Mehbood told The Australian: "I'm not talking to you about any of this stuff."

Former student Fatma Hussein, 26, who works in a local charity and aims to mentor Muslim students after graduation, said the way in which AFIC had acted was contrary to the Islamic teachings fostered by the school.

"This school is a school that represents our Islamic community well. It's the board that is giving us a bad name. These people are not representing our community. Islam is a religion of peace . . . and these guys were being investigated by the government. We want answers if they claim to be representing us," Ms Hussein said.

"If they want to raise the school fees we want answers. If they can't give it to us, then they should do the honourable thing and stand down."