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TITLE OF THE PROJECT:ISLAMIC EXTREMISM IN MALAYSIACOURSE CODE:UNGS 1301 SECTION 1(BASIC PHILOSOPHY AND ISLAMIC WORLDVIEW)LECTURER’S NAME :DR. NORBANI BINTI ISMAILSTUDENT’S NAME MATRIC NUMBERAhmad Azry Arsyad bin Abd Rahanuddin 2017763 Muhammad Mursyid Zuhdi Bin Razali 2010857 Huda Binti Mohamad Azma...

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TITLE OF THE PROJECT: ISLAMIC EXTREMISM IN MALAYSIA

COURSE CODE: UNGS 1301 SECTION 1 (BASIC PHILOSOPHY AND ISLAMIC WORLDVIEW)

LECTURER’S NAME : DR. NORBANI BINTI ISMAIL STUDENT’S NAME

MATRIC NUMBER

Ahmad Azry Arsyad bin Abd Rahanuddin

2017763

Muhammad Mursyid Zuhdi Bin Razali

2010857

Huda Binti Mohamad Azman

2011360

Nur Rifka Binti Rahamathullah

2011352

Muhammad Irsyad Izzuddin Bin Abdul Rahman

2017215

Muhammad Naqiuddin Shahir Bin Mohd Nasir

2018959

Mohammad Syawwal Bin Redhuan Maullod

2017135

1. INTRODUCTION 84 percent of the population in this world have their respective religion and believe in achieving the goals of salvation for oneself and others, and (if there is a God) to render due worship and obedience to God. Different religions have different understandings of salvation and God to attain deeds and His pleasure (Micheal Lipka, 2019). Apart from that, professing a religion is to ensure the harmonization and integration between all human beings in this world can be achieved as it implicitly indicates how unwelcomed any attributes of violation or encroachment since it obviously will lead to tempestuous and warlike conflict between one another. On the other hand, according to Amos N.Guiora writing named, ‘Religious Extremism: A Fundamental Danger’, most of the religions nowadays have significantly become a new threat to safety, subsequently illustrates the objective and the purpose of the religions had changed negatively affected by some factors as one of them is to go beyond of what their God asked them to do i.e. extremism. The attributes of extremism in religion were not alien and new as we can see how Prophet Muhammad PBUH against it radically during his era. For instance, an authentic hadith reported by Aisyah (peace and blessing be upon her) stated that the Prophet did not encourage a woman to not sleep to pray since it is not within human’s capability, indeed Allah S.W.T admired Muslims who do one deed continuously and not extremely. This authentic hadith shows us two points, first, the existence of extremism started ages ago, second, we should do what God asks us to do and not go across the border since He knows what is best for us. In Malaysia, the disputes related to religious extremism is not a big issue as compared to its neighbour, yet it is impossible to neglect this matter since there has been some direct involvement of Malaysia with extremist groups and acting extremely (Jaafar, Akhmetova, Aminudin, p. 47, 2020). Islamic religion in Malaysia has widely spread as there are 61.3% of its

population identify themselves as Muslim. Thus, it is not surprising if the issue of religious extremism in Malaysia has a big association with Islamic religion due to its number as the higher number of people professing one religion, the higher disputes would arised. Hence, in this research paper, there are two main items that will be discussed thoroughly: first, what caused the attribution of extremism in Islamic religions specifically in Malaysia, and second, how Malaysia responds to this pertaining issues. 2. OBJECTIVES The objective of this research paper is to meticulously examine the cause of the existence of extremism attribution among Muslims in Malaysia. Besides, to know the current condition of the latter problem as it can be a yardstick whether there is a development happening to such an attribution over Islamic religion or not. Apart from that, in this research paper, it will highlight the precaution taken by Malaysians to ensure this problem will not expand in future and its challenges to make the latter target achievable. 3. METHODS OF STUDY This study uses a qualitative method. Qualitative methods are used to obtain causes and responses related to extremist religion and the problem of Islamic extremism in Malaysia. The description is as follows: 3.1 Data Collection Methods Methods used to obtain primary data. 3.1.1 Library Methods Researchers use library methods to obtain information through scholarly books, articles, pamphlets, magazines, and others. In addition, researchers also surf the internet to help researchers find and obtain information more accurately and easily. The Internet can also provide

information for the use of researchers. Thus, the researcher can express the concept of religious extremism and the problem of Islamic extremism in Malaysia in detail and clearly. To get a complete concept of religious extremism, the researcher has referred to the article The Factors Contributing To The Rise Of Religious Extremism In Malaysia by Muhammad Izzuddin Jaafar, Elmira Akhmetova and Rabi'ah Aminudin. This article was released in 2019. In addition, the researcher refers to a journal to study the problem of Islamic extremism in Malaysia, namely Religious Extremism And Radicalization Of Muslims In Malaysia: The Malay Ties With The Mujahideen, Al-Qaeeda and ISIS by Muhammad Izzuddin Jaafar and Elmira Akhmetova released in 2019. 4. SIGNIFICANCE The finding of this study will redound to the society considering the awareness among Malaysians about religious extremism will increase, subsequently, they do not easily fall into the chamber of this dispute. Besides, to evaluate the effectiveness of precaution taken by Malaysia to ensure the attribution of religious extremism can totally be eliminated to remain harmonious and peaceful in Malaysia. Apart from that, it set out some constructive suggestions related to curbing this matter to increase the efficiency of precaution taken by Malaysia to ensure the attribution of religious extremism will not continuously expand. To further research, this study can provide baseline information on the recent status of religious extremism in Malaysia. 5. CAUSES OF RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM Extremism involves various aspects and manifests itself at various levels. Some people labelled as extremists may engage in violence directly, while others may just hold extremist ideologies without engaging in violence or aggressiveness. At this time, religious extremism is the most common manifestation of extremism. Religious extremism is frequently justified on the

basis of rigid literal interpretation of doctrines, while rejecting solutions to modern developments through reasoning and logical interpretations. Nevertheless, deceptions of faith and beliefs have existed from the beginning of human civilisations and societies. Followers of the Abrahamic monotheistic religions, namely the Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as other religious communities such as Hindus and Buddhists, have committed horrifying acts as a result of acts of religious extremism. However, the causes and factors for the rise of religious extremism nowadays are colonialism, politicisation of religion, parasitic ideologies and emotion. The colonial period is seen to have contributed to the country widening racial gap which is driving the rise of religious extremism. Colonialism will create nationalism as well as racism and lastly extremism. For example, the widespread utilisation of race-based awareness among Malay and non-Malay individuals throughout the colonial period deepened the racial gap in Malaysia. The people had developed strong prejudice due to various British interference among cultural groupings based on racial consciousness. Furthermore, the fact that they understood so little about one other's cultural backgrounds led to the strain on inter-racial interactions. This was primarily owing to the British government's execution of the “divide and rule” strategy, which segregated races into different labour areas. The Malays worked mostly in agriculture, while the Chinese worked in mining and the Indians worked on plantations. The population was even more separated as a result of this labour division. Even though the immigration of Chinese and Indians established the possibility of a multicultural society, the ‘divide and rule' strategy and economic segregation resulted in communal division and structural violence among the people of various races in Malaysia. This action developed racism and slowly religion began to be misused to arouse the emotions, resulting in the development of tension. Thus, colonialism may lead to the

rise of religious conservatism which frequently acts as the platform for extremism, violence and conflict. The politicisation of religion occurs due to the strong usage of extreme religious sentiments as justification. As an example, the practise of religious politicisation has been widespread among Malaysian politicians in recent years. The politicisation of religion in Malaysia is mostly done to gain political votes and support. The political parties misuse religion to represent themselves as protectors of religion, even to the point of maligning people who disagree with their religious beliefs. In many ways, this is all done to further a political goal rather than to serve communities. The use of religious sentiments is mainly focused on the Malay-Muslim identity, which makes up the country's majority population. The politicisation of religion is most commonly observed nowadays as being associated with ethnicity as the primary driving factor. Islam and Malay are interrelated in Malaysia which make the politicisation of Islam simpler and more widely accepted. Thus, religion and ethnicity are intended to become powerful political tools. Politicising religion will create an exclusive society and that will encourages religious intolerance and extremism among Muslim groups. Parasitic ideologies also can be included as one of the factors that contribute to the rise of religious extremism particularly in Malaysia. These extremist groups usually used this kind of method as a psychological tool that justified their extreme actions under the needs of protecting religious attitudes. These effective means were used by an intermediary agent due to their personal behaviours which were credible and alluring the youth to join these groups. The main agenda and objective of these groups was standing on the ‘right path’ without knowing the truth behind it. As for the modern days, the cooperation of advancement of technology such as social media and internet ease the circulation of propaganda to be segregated towards the society. For

instance, the strong influence of ISIS on Malaysians was assisted with the technology of social media, which can be regarded as a main platform in recruiting new members. Early in May 2016, 98 percent of Malaysians reported to enroll in ISIS via online platforms as stated by Principal Assistant Director at the Special Branch’s Counter-Terrorism Division. Another example, the case of Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi whose used the name of ‘Malaysia’s jihadist celebrity’ as he always used the social media to spread a lot of contents pertaining to extremism under an account named ‘Generasi al- Ghuroba’ (Generation of the Foreigners). This example can be illustrated that social media is indeed an effective means for extremists to disperse their own beliefs. The name of the said account being used was assisted with the term ghuraba which can be found in the hadith of our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who speaked out that the generation of ghuraba as the tur Muslims in the final days. It should be noted that the way these extremist groups justified their wrongdoing agenda by using the Islamic narrative. Therefore, it is easy for the directed prey which are teenagers to fall under this kind of tricks as these extremists stand with convincing manners in order to capture the attention of the public. The attitude of those people who joined these extremists towards the right or wrong things might change after they went through a lot of brainwashing sessions by the propaganda. At the end, these kinds of extremist groups always opined that they are the true believers and should be the role model for the ummah at large. The growth of extreme values through emotion is a developing process that frequently leads to someone opposing societal norms. These beliefs mainly revolve on the thought of a race or religion being superior to another. For example, the misuse of concepts such as the "Ketuanan Melayu" has typically contributed to the rise of extremism in Malaysia. This concept should encourage Malays to empower themselves for their own benefit, and it is not about dominance in

its purest form. Unfortunately, it is frequently utilised to oppress other races by arousing the Malays' emotions, which indirectly promotes ideas of superiority. The anger of certain Malays against people of different races and religions is seen and developed from some of the verbal statements made by influential people. Extremism may be expressed via emotions in two ways either through violence or nonviolence and both violate the fundamental rights to freedom and life. As a result, it may be concluded that emotions can lead to extremism and might inspire someone to act extremely. 6. RESPONSES TO THE RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted between April 5 and May 21, 2015, only 26 percent of Malaysians polled were “very concerned” about Islamic extremism in their country. In 2015, the percentage of Malaysians who were “very concerned” about extremism increased seven percent year-over-year. The poll also found that opinions varied depending upon religion ; 30 percent of Malaysian Muslims were “very concerned” about a terrorist threat, whereas only 18 percent of Buddhist Malays were “very concerned” about a terrorist threat. Fighting for religion is important because in Sunnah and Al-Quran also encourage a Muslim to fight for the sake of religion is not wrong. Before the war we need to negotiate and get the word break or try to avoid war with the consultants. Individuals feel it’s obligatory to fight for their religion. For example: ‘It is important to fight to defend Islam for those who are capable of fighting’. Government can solve this problem by doing a soft strategy which is

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de-radicalization program or rehabilitation of VE perpetrators and education programs for members of the public, youth, and women. Due to this, the Malaysian government has combined

its soft and hard law approach and has experienced a 97.5% success rate in the implementation of such programmes. Government also observes that the ideas behind such de-radicalisation programs are to counter extremist ideas and ideologies with proper guidance and sound religious principles. The government has recently established a new counter-messaging center in 2016 which attempts to erode these extremism groups by exposing the said group's message of hate and violence while at the same time providing an alternative and inclusive vision of hope for a better future. In 2017, the Counter Terrorism Policy which is stipulated in Directive No. 18 by the National Security Council (NSC) was created. The policy focuses on five thrusts, including denouncing any form of terrorist acts, providing protection for hostages’ life and property, preference for negotiated solutions, no exchange of hostages to resolve the crisis and lastly to strike action as a last resort following the failure of negotiations. However, despite the existence of the ‘soft’ or bottom-up strategy, Malaysia seems to focus more on the ‘hard’ and security modalities or law enforcement-centric approaches rather than close collaboration with civil society. What is glaring is the current inadequacy of a gendered approach in Preventing Violent Extremism and Countering Violent Extremism in Malaysia, which recognizes gender equality and women’s rights as human rights. Thus, it is not surprising that in Malaysia there is no explicit national CVE established by the UN Sec-General PVE , for recognizing and supporting the role of women in preventing violent extremism. Then, Malaysia tends to rely primarily on highly efficient police and anti-terrorism forces such law enforcement strategies have led to the arrest of many militants, locals and foreigners alike. From 2013 to today, 415 militants have been detained, including 44 women. Most of the detainees were IS members and recruits, 75 were members of Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM), and 6 were members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). In dealing with the challenges of

terrorism, Malaysia has created two relevant pieces of legislation, namely the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2015 (POTA) and the Special Measures against Terrorism in Foreign Countries Act 2015 (SMATA). Both statutes are consistent with the spirit and purpose of UNSCR 2178, particularly in monitoring the activities and threats of foreign terrorist fighters. Prior to introduction of these laws, the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA) was in power which contained numerous executive actions against radical behaviours. The ISA was very unpopular and was finally replaced by the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (SOSMA) 2012, which is a security-related law. NGOs in Malaysia use innovative techniques and creative strategies to solve the Islamic extremism in Malaysia. In 2009, ABIM organised a programme for new converts to Islam and youth. In this treasure hunt, they were to state the extremism group that exists in Malaysia and list how the group influenced people to join extremism. YADIM held workshops to discover Muslim leaders and also gave Muamalah literary programmes educating people about the real Islamic religious and this religion was not like extremism group like they watched in the television and internet. YADIM also partnered with TV AlHijrah, the national Islamic television channel, and produced a reality television show on causes of extremism in Malaysia and how they can avoid joining that extremism. Bringing creativity into the dawah scene is a very important step in showing people the vitality and dynamism at the heart of Islam. Many times people get attracted to terrorist narratives simply because these narratives are different from what their ustaz (religious teacher) taught them or what they hear in Friday sermons. These people are not seeking out violence , but they are seeking a way out of boredom. They want freshness in their lives, which they find lacking in the usual presentations of Islam.

Lastly, as a Muslim must have strong faith in Islam and have a wide knowledge about Islam. They must diligently read the Qur'an and hadith and understand the meaning of the verses to avoid being deviated. The evidence suggests that most of the participants have weakly held beliefs and they were not based on credible sources such as Al Quran and Hadith or famous religious scholars which are sufficient to make a person agree to join an extremist group. Evidence from the literature in the past has suggested a similar idea. For example, Amjad and Wood (2009) stated that people who have weakly held beliefs can be easily influenced to join an extremist group and once the person joins the group, they become locked and are not permitted to leave the group. 7. CHALLENGES Nowadays, Islamic extremism in Malaysia is spreading very vastly. We have to face this challenge by all means in order to protect our beliefs. One of the islamic extremism is Syiah where there are a number who are tempted with Syiah teaching as their teaching is very lenient compared to Sunni. As for example, one of the practices of Syiah that is attractive for our community is Nikah Mut’ah or Marriage contract. Marriage contract can be considered as a marriage which has a stipulated time limit and was once permissible by Rasulluah. However, according to a hadith, Rasulullah himself had already banned this form of marriage after the war of Khaibar. Nabi Melayu Muhammad Kahar also can be a big challenge for us to disseminate this problem as he once said that prayer 5 times a day is not obligatory. We can say here that this teaching is very lenient, which is the reason why people are attracted to it. In Malaysia particularly, we can see that there are many extremism teachings such as Nabi Melayu and Ayah Pin. But the main or the biggest challenge is Syiah as it spreads fast

through t...