Indonesian actor reveals that many Malaysians attend deviant teaching event at religious school

SHAH ALAM - An Indonesian celebrity reveals that there are many Malaysians who attended a controversial ceremony involving a sekolah pondok (religious boarding school) in Indramayu, Jawa Barat in the country.

Actor Lucky Hakim made the revelation during a recent interview on Indonesian television network Tvonenews.com.

Lucky who also attended the event said he did not expect it to be such a huge ceremony.

"It was not an ordinary ceremony since there were many vehicles. I saw that over 2,000 guests attended the event and many were from outside the country such as from Korea and most of them were from Malaysia.

"Before I was seated, I was given a songkok and a jacket because they (the organiser) probably thought my clothes were inappropriate as it was too casual.

"After that, I sat at the front row together with prominent guests who will be delivering their speeches," he said.

Currently in Indonesia, the issue on the activities at the school was the talk of the town sparking various controversies.

It all started with a viral social media post of the founder of the school leading the Hari Raya Aidilfitri prayers which was said to be performed against the Islamic teachings.

In the video, people were seen performing the prayers standing one metre away from each other just like it was during the Covid-19 pandemic but men and women were standing together in the same row.

The founder once again sparked controversy when he asked his followers to sing songs and say hello in Hebrew.

Besides that, the Friday prayers khutbah (sermons) at the school were being delivered by a woman.

The azan (call to prayer) by the students at the school was done in a way that the muazzin (a man who calls for prayer) faced the congregants and this had caused confusion to the public.

Meanwhile, famous Indonesian preacher Ustaz Abdul Somad condemned the school's action as the song they sang at the mosque was a greeting song for the Jews.

He said based on the video of the ceremony, the founder of the school had also asked the guests to sing a song called "Hanevu Shalom Alaichem" which was known as the national anthem of the Jews.

In this regard, Abdul Somad urged the Indonesian authorities to take action against the school because it allegedly acted as a "Jewish agent".

According to Washington Times, the school was one of the largest boarding schools in Southeast Asia.

The school opened in 1996 covering an area of 1,200 hectares and in 2011 it had more than 7,000 students including students from Malaysia.

The school was officiated by former Indonesian president BJ Habibie.