Keistimewaan pendidikan agama Islam dan pandangan pentadbir British terhadap sistem pendidikan di Tanah Melayu: The Privileges of Islamic religious education and British administrator’s views on the education system in Malaya

The majority of British administrators adhered to the philosophy of logical positivism (later known as logical empiricism), an understanding that emphasises the use of the intellect as the main approach to obtaining accurate scientific facts based on meticulous and systematic research methods. This philosophy rejects the proof of a fact from the source of revelation as it is considered not relevant in proving history and has created bigoted and queried views towards the Malay community in Malaya. This article focuses on the analysis of the British administrators’ views on the system of education in Malaya, which includes religious and secular education, and on determining the privileges of Islamic religious education for the Malay community. The methods used were historiography, comparative method, and content analysis. The study found that the British administrators underestimated the contribution of the Islamic education system in Malaya and considered that the failure of Malaya in achieving its high civilization was due to its adherence to Islam, which was considered irrelevant and outdated. Hence, to overcome these weaknesses, internalising secularism into the thinking of the Malays in Malaya through the Western education system was seen as an appropriate step