“We can’t look away from the fact this is real. I’m not going to say it’s a joke, there is a realness to it. But we need to be very sensible about the way we address it. We can’t generalize and tar everyone with the same brush,” Lakemba MP Jihad Dib told The Guardian Australia on Tuesday, 11 August.

“This audit, potentially, if it just looks to audit one particular group, then it also seeks to isolate that group [and] even further marginalize them, and that pushes kids further away.”

Troubles started after a New South Wales public school has floated plans to keep a register of students who pray together during breaks.

On the school’s own initiative, a letter was sent to parents at Marsden High school which cited a “federal government requirement” that a register of attendance be taken during prayer meetings and informal prayer groups.

The NSW premier, Mike Baird, said auditing prayer groups, most of which are run by approved clerics, was an “appropriate step to ensure … extra sensitivity to movement, words [and] actions that we may see that might be appropriate to report and take action against”.

Principals have also been issued with a memo outlining their obligations to report extremist behavior.

The president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Stephen Blanks, said the prospect of children having to register to practice their religion during school was “thoroughly alarming”.

“Of course the department should know what is going on in terms of religious activities within schools,” he said.

“But that does not extend to keeping a record of students who attend religious meetings, and must be done in a way that is sensitive to all people’s freedom to practice whatever religion they choose.”