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he Culture and Education Ministry has prohibited the distribution and publishing of school text books that contain themes of religious violence and religious and racial discrimination.

The ministry'€™s director general of early childhood education, Harris Iskandar, said that the ban was issued based on Ministerial Decree No. 82/2015 on the eradication of violence in the school environment.

'€œEarly childhood is the right time to form character and values and because of this, any information given to them '€” whether written, visual or oral '€” must be free from any themes of violence, hate, pornography and racial and religious discrimination,'€ he said.

The ministerial order had been sent to education agencies nationwide following reports of complaints about a textbook entitled Anak Islam Suka Membaca (Muslim Children Like Reading) that purportedly carried themes deemed unsuitable for children.

The Culture and Education Ministry said that the book, which was written by Nurani Musta'€™in and first published in Surakarta, Central Java, in 1999, encouraged children to be curious about acts of violence.

'€œIn volume three, page 19, the book contains the sentence: '€˜willing to die for religion'€™. On page 27, there is the sentence: '€˜we won'€™t stand for it if our religion is insulted, men will defend our religion and women will defend our religion, we are all willing to defend our religion for God'€™,'€ a report from the ministry said.

Several volumes of the book also carry references to heavy weaponry such as bullets, bombs and bazookas.

'€œWith such references, these books are not suitable for young children and should not be used at any early childhood institution,'€ Harris said.

Separately, Nurani and her husband, Ayip Syarifuddin, have denied that they inserted radical ideas in the book.

'€œThere was never any intention from us to deliver radical teachings,'€ Ayip said as quoted by kompas.com.

Ayip said that they had long employed the words used within the book but only realized now the sensitive nature of the words. Calls for stricter regulations on media consumed by children have risen recently, especially with the recent increase in child bullying cases.

President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has called for stricter regulations on television programs so that children will not be exposed to on-screen violence.

According to the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), there were 970 cases of bullying reported in 2014, a tremendous leap from the 632 cases recorded in the previous year.

Earlier this week, Benny Ramdhani, deputy head of the Ansor Youth Movement (GP Ansor), Nahdlatul Ulama'€™s youth wing, exposed the books'€™ radical themes and claimed that the group had uncovered '€œefforts to use schools to plant seeds of radicalism in our community'€.

Separately, KPAI deputy chairman Susanto applauded the Culture and Education Ministry'€™s move to ban the books.

'€œThe teacher'€™s perspective, the materials taught and even the method is very influential [to children]. So, if the materials carry radical themes, then it could definitely influence the way children think,'€ he told the Post.

He said that though the ministry'€™s order was commendable and necessary, he hoped that teachers, principals and officials from education agencies nationwide would properly implement the ban to make sure that Anak Islam Suka Membaca and similar radical material would not be further distributed and taught in schools.