The Malek Fahd Islamic School (MFIS) has been dogged by questions of malpractice, noncompliance, and financial mismanagement for years.

Last year, a Department of Education audit concluded that the school had been operating for-profit, and was therefore ineligible to receive Commonwealth funding under the terms of the Australian Education Act.

The Department called into question a number of aspects in the relationship between the school board and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC), such as the uncommercial lease terms on the AFIC-owned Greenacre campus property, where the school pays rent significantly in excess of market value.

In response, the school board was swiftly dissolved and a new interim board was appointed, led by community leader Miriam Silva, a prolific and experienced businesswoman. 

Unfortunately, it came a little too late as this week, after prolonged uncertainty about the future of the school, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal upheld the Federal Government decision to revoke funding, only weeks before the school year begins.

The Tribunal did note, however, that the board “has made substantial progress towards compliance with the requirement to adopt appropriate financial policies and practices,” and accepted that “that the new management of MFISL is working diligently to make the organisation compliant with the legislation.”

Incredibly, an AFIC media release has sought to evade responsibility for the decision and shift the blame onto the board of MFIS and, in particular, chairwoman Miriam Silva.

AFIC has said: "It is clear that the board of Malek Fahd Islamic School had failed to satisfy the Minister of Education of their fitness to run a school such as Malek Fahd Islamic School."

However, the Tribunal notes: "The Minister accepts the new board members are individuals of integrity who are genuinely committed to the welfare of students, educational purposes more generally, and the need to comply with the legislation."

“Since the change in management in March 2016, I am satisfied many things have changed, or are changing. [...] If the internal governance arrangements and the policies and practices were the only issue, I would not be inclined to revoke the approval.”

In fact, the primary concern of the Tribunal is with the improper financial obligations that the school has to AFIC.

The school has an obligation to pay above-market rent on the Greenacre campus property given the uncommercial terms of the lease. As the Tribunal notes, this will mean that “funds will continued to be applied otherwise than for the purposes of the school, and they will continue to be distributed (if indirectly) to AFIC”. AFIC could effectively disentangle itself from MFIS and provide an avenue for the school to regain funding if it were to hand the school property over to an independently-managed school trust.

But, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, “Australia's peak administrative Islamic body is refusing to relinquish land being used by one of the state's largest schools despite the potential for it to save the school from being shut down.”

This is despite the fact that the school was established on a gift from the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia -- money that was always intended for the school, not for the coffers of AFIC.

The Australian Muslim community is united with the broader community in outrage over the alleged gross financial mismanagement and governance failings which prompted the funding withdrawal, and which detail a long history of financial self-interest on the part of AFIC.

We, the undersigned, demand that AFIC acts in the interests of the school, the Muslim community, and the Australian public by immediately:

* terminating the uncommercial lease agreements that are crippling the current MFIS Board’s ability to secure the future of the school;

* returning all advanced rental payments for school-occupied land;

* returning the $1.42 million borrowed from the school for land purchases, and;

* and turning school-occupied land over to an independently managed school trust.

It is our strongly held opinion that AFIC is continuing to operate as an undemocratic boys’ club with flagrant disregard for the wellbeing of Australian Muslims.

AFIC does not represent us.