Adelaide deputy lord mayor Houssam Abiad has responded to an ’embarrassing’ controversy at an Islamic high school in South Australia by expressing disappointment that some in his community refuse to integrate.

The Islamic College of South Australia has been accused of segregating students by gender, forcing all female staff to wear head coverings and financial mismanagement.

Mr Abiad said the school ‘needed to get its act together’ and attributed the problems in part to a wider social problem.

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“Islam is not one culture and, in any migrant group, some want to integrate, some assimilate, some stand aside,” the councillor told the ABC.

“What concerns me is the status quo, the people who migrate to Australia and they refuse to take on the language and they refuse to integrate to the community.”

School administrators have strongly denied the allegations, saying its finances were in order, its dress code had nothing to do with religion, and that gender segregation does not occur.

A parent with a child at the school also expressed concern about the direction of the college.

“I don’t want that kind of Islam promoted to my kids, that is not Islam,” Bayan Mohamed told the ABC.

“I don’t want them to come out of that school and starting in the community, starting judging the society.

“I am scared because they may judge me too.”