The Islamic International School (IIS) in Mumbai’s Mazgaon, run by controversial preacher Zakir Naik’s banned Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), has received a fresh lease of life.
The school, which was about to shut it doors to 185 of its students, has been taken over by a welfare trust run by Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi, Mumbai Mirror reported on 17 May.
The school will now be run by the Niyaz Minority Education and Welfare Trust and will be renamed Avicenna International School, the publication quoted Azmi as saying. He added that while the staff and teachers will not be changed, the syllabus might undergo minor changes. Azmi told the daily:
Two days back we have signed the rent agreement and now Zakir Naik has nothing to do with it.
The government had previously approached several Muslim educational institutes, requesting that they take over the school. However, they failed to get a positive response, the report said, as several schools were wary of the controversy surrounding Naik.
According to the report, the Anjuman-I-Islam school turned down the offer, claiming the IIS followed religious teachings instead of the state syllabus.
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