UNFORTUNATELY, modern international terrorism has evolved in such a way that it is branded as “Islamic terrorism”. This labelling itself does not help to undermine terrorism and hence I would prefer to use the term “Islam-related terrorism” to convey the idea that such terrorism exploits the theology of Islam.

“Islamic terrorism” on the other hand puts the entire Muslim community into a bad light and wrongly equates Islam with violence – and hence, Islamophobia.

Furthermore, one should always keep in mind that all the main religions of the world – Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism – have been exploited to provide the motivation for public violence. This article, however, is about Islam-related terrorism and the need for the present government to seriously formulate strategies and long term policies to undermine extremism in the Muslim community.

An extremist mindset does not happen overnight but due to various factors and the fertile environment that makes it grow. It is therefore important to honestly identify the factors and the nature of the environment that enables the peaceful and spiritual teaching of Islam to be radicalised.

I have never heard or experienced any violent form of extremism while I was growing up as a Muslim. However, in the early 80s, while I was studying in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, I witnessed early signs of extremism brewing among the student population. That was the period when Ayatollah Khomeni was the hero of almost every Muslim student activist, including me, I must confess, for a while.

That was the first time in mo­­dern history that a Muslim country was able to “tell off” America and the hope that Iran would be the model of an “Islamic State”. So, I was among the young Muslim students who were excited when the government then introduced the “Islamisation” policy, thinking that it would make the country more just and prosperous and make the Muslim citizens better thinking human beings.

Of course, both my hopes were dashed even before I graduated from UKM because what I saw was the slow rise of extremism among some sections of the Muslim community and the beginning of inward looking and exclusive attitude of some Muslims. This wasn’t the type of Islam I understood from the Quran.

I also realised that the Islamisation policy soon became an excuse to impose a certain kind of Islam on Muslim citizens and slowly it was hijacked unofficially by certain groups with their own agenda. Islamisation policy muta­ted into a kind of “Islam-as-I-say-tion” national behaviour.

The government then was either oblivious to this process of hijacking or was keeping quiet due to political expediency. One must remember the context of the political contest between PAS and Umno then as who is the true “protector and custodian” of Islam. I believe this contributed to extreme interpretations and narratives of Islam.

There are extremist groups called takfiri who even claim that other Muslims are actually kafir or heretics or unbelievers. We have seen this happen in our country and I believe if you Google and search on YouTube, you will find some Malaysian Muslim preachers labelling other Muslims as either

kafirs or sesat even today. These are ideologies that are unacceptable to mainstream Muslims and clearly causes disunity and conflict in our society. If unchecked, it may just be a matter of time when extremism evolves into violence.

We are fortunate that the Police Counter Terrorism Unit headed by Datuk Ayob Khan have been effective in monitoring and preempting terrorist attacks in Malaysia except for the bomb blast near a night club at Puchong some time back.

We have heard of reports of Malaysian Muslims being recruited in the Syrian conflict including young Malaysian women. World terrorism alert groups have warned that Islamic State elements, after the failure of the militant group in the Middle East, have changed their strategies to use third world countries as a hub to plan their attacks. In 2015, our police detained 17 suspected militants for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in Kuala Lumpur.

As recent as two weeks back, Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Bador reported that the police have arrested three IS militants including two bomb experts in Kedah and Selangor.

Even the death of firemen Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim became an excuse for militancy where, reportedly, four militants had targeted VIPs and non-Muslim houses of worship.

Once again kudos to the Police Counter Terrorism unit which foiled their violent plans. With the presence of militants in our midst, public space is no longer safe. It is clear that both foreigners and Malaysian Muslims are involved in terrorist activities within our shores. It is most unfortunate and extremely dangerous that some Malaysian Muslims get themselves involved in the politics of the Middle East in violent ways exploiting the banner of Islam.

Religious agencies in our country ought to play an active role in speaking out against terrorism and extremism. They should be proactive to respond to the kind of lectures and speeches being made either by politicians or even religious figures who sprout the worse form of interpretation of Islam.

While I fully advocate freedom of speech and faith, I believe the line should be drawn where it clearly calls for extremism and violent behaviours that affect the security of others. It appears to be, however, that the religious authorities seem more keen to haul up those who may have different interpretation of Islam from the state-defined interpretation, even though such activities do not directly bring any threat to public security. I would argue that extremist preaching and activities that can incite violence are the ones that should attract their concern.

Secondly, within the religious institutions itself, we ought to be careful that it is not infiltrated by those with an extremist mindset whom in the long run may have a militant agenda. Regular checks into what is happening in the religious classes and the religious schools ought to be conducted to ensure that Islam is not being exploited to cause division in society and is not geared towards preparing an extremist mindset.

Thirdly, the Education Ministry will have to carefully scrutinise the school syllabuses to determine the nature of Islam taught, what is emphasised and how it is taught. This may be an area that Jakim may be involved.

Fourthly, throughout modern history, Islam-related terrorism has a close connection with West Asia or Middle East.

This should alert the authorities to be careful in selecting the universities to which our students are sent for the purposes of Islamic studies. Muslims generally have a romantic and sentimental attachment to the Arabic language and they are easily duped by even the evil ones who can sprout Arabic fluently.

Fifthly, the public space for open discussion on Islam should be allowed to encourage the mindset of differing civilly without resorting to extremist or violent beha­vioir. The fear of becoming sesat or astray should not be the excuse to curtail proper discussion of Islam or Islamic issues.

To me the idea of a collective conscience in faith is a myth and I believe a person should be allowed to discuss and debate what concerns his conscience. This has

several advantages. First, it allows others with greater knowledge to correct any misconceptions or misunderstandings. Second, members of the society are trained to be cri­tical and not gullible to accept anything that is termed Islamic. Hence, we prepare the Muslim community to be wary of extremist interpretations and recruitment by terrorists.

Third, public discussion of ideas will eliminate or reduce ideas from fermenting underground and mutating into extremist behaviours. All these can be done in an environment of civility if the authorities want to allow it.

Sixthly, I cannot overstate the importance of depoliticising Islam in our country. Depoliticisation of Islam does not mean that politics should be completely free from Islamic values such as not lying to the voters, corrupt behaviours of politicians and so on.

Islamisation of politics is very different from politicisation of Islam. For example, if you say you should not vote for a corrupt

leader, that is Islamising politics. On the other hand if you say that you must vote for a Muslim even if he is corrupt, that to me is politi­cising Islam, for clearly Islam prohibits breach of trust. Another clear example of politicising Islam is to say that if you vote for my political party, you will go to hea­ven. Any sane Muslim will tell you that your fate in the hereafter is the sole prerogative of the Almighty God.

Politics have extreme tendencies especially when there is a turmoil in the quest for power. History records that many false hadiths have been created for the sole purpose of currying political support from the people or to chastise your political opponents. Many scholars opine that the Sunni-Syiah divide in history is political rather than theological in its origin. That is how dangerous mixing religion and politics can be for the stability and peace of the country. We have to be bold enough to arrest the potential disaster for our country now, before we turn ourselves into the crisis-laden Middle East.