The nation's peak Muslim body says a Commonwealth audit into its schools will clear up the "outrageous claims and allegations" levelled at its institutions.
Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne said on Tuesday the education department would investigate allegations of financial mismanagement and governance at the six Islamic schools run by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils.
The crackdown comes after mounting complaints of financial mismanagement and fundamentalist practices in the schools.
"We totally agree with Mr Pyne that the audit will get to the bottom of things," said AFIC spokesman Amjad Mehboob.
"All the claims of financial mismanagement and the other outrageous claims have no truth whatsoever and so we welcome this opportunity to end all of the innuendo and allegations.
"We have nothing to hide."
Mr Pyne said last month that he would look into media reports around school curriculum and separation of male and female students at the Islamic College of SA following a protest led by parents at the school's gates.
These concerns have been decried by the AFIC and Islamic school principals as lies that have had a detrimental impact on students.
"This college is far from hardline anything, it's a top school and performs with the best in Queensland," said the principal of the Islamic College of Brisbane, Dr Ray Barrett, who also presided over Sydney school Malek Fahd in 2013/14 when the school was audited by KPMG.
He described the probe as a "knee-jerk reaction to media attention" about Muslim schools.
"The non-state schools board hasn't got any questions about curriculum, the teaching, uniforms or mixing of boys and girls, none of that has ever come into question," Mr Barrett said.
"If anybody came into this school on any day you'd just see business as usual."
Share
