The incident comes at a sensitive time for Malaysia after protests by minority ethnic Indians against policies they say benefit majority Muslim Malays. Indians say the policies rob them of jobs, education and other opportunities.A march in the capital last November by more than 10,000 ethnic Indians to protest against racial discrimination upset authorities and many ordinary Malaysians."The teacher was actually enforcing the rules which forbade the wearing of accessories," education director of the northern Malaysian state of Perak, Hussain Harun told the Star newspaper."But in fact, he was being insensitive to the students' religious and cultural practices."Four parents complained to the police on Saturday after the discipline teacher ordered the secondary school students to shave off their facial hair, stop wearing religious wristbands and spoke to them harshly when they tried to explain, the paper said.Islam is the official religion of multi-racial Malaysia, where Muslims make up just over half the population of 26 million, while large numbers of ethnic Indian and ethnic Chinese minorities follow the Hindu, Buddhist and Christian faiths.
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