KUCHING, July 1 — The Sarawak Museum has dismissed claims that knowledge of Islam as one of the conditions in an advertisement for the post of an administrative assistant in the Turtle Management Board is discriminatory.

Responding to the allegations on social media, its director Tajuddin Mokhtar said even though the board preferred the applicant to have Islamic knowledge, the condition was not mandatory.

"If critics care to read between the lines, that particular condition is not mandatory but it has got something to do with Malay heritage and Islamic rites,” he told The Borneo Post.

Tajuddin asserted that the condition was definitely not racist because at one particular time, the Sarawak Museum had a Bidayuh holding the post.

The advertisement was published in Malay in the local daily, Utusan Borneo, on Wednesday and was met with criticism, particularly on Facebook.

Besides knowledge of Islam, the other conditions are that the applicant be between 21 and 35 years old, is capable of conversing and writing in English, have a minimum SPM or SPVM qualification with credit in Bahasa Malaysia, and resides in Kuching.

It also said that applicants who can swim and do not get seasick will be shortlisted. — Borneo Post