The King Salman Center for International Peace in Malaysia aims to correct international misconceptions about Islam and combat the malicious rhetoric spread by ISIS and other terrorist organizations, Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammed Najib Abdul Razzaq said.
Addressing the Putrajaya International Security Dialogue 2018, themed “Wisdom and Moderation in Countering Terrorism,” the Malaysian PM added: “The role of religious institutions does not only include the dissemination of beliefs, but also combating terrorism and extremism.”
Malaysia’s PM also called on religious scholars and institutions to engage more and innovate methods for combating extremist ideologies and distorted rhetoric about religious obligations.
Secretary-general of the Muslim World League (MWL) Mohammed al-Issa, said: “The values of moderation in Islam are far from all concepts of extremism — whether the extremism Islam is falsely accused of, or counter-extremism seen in Islamophobia, which have resulted in conflicts, violence, and terrorism.
“Counter-extremism incessantly brings the barbarity of religious extremism to attention in order to convince others of its anti-Islam theory and then pass its claims on,” he continued. Yet, he added that “scholars carry the great responsibility of bringing the truth to light.”
He added: “Latest statistics show that 1.8 billion Muslims in the Islamic world are moderate Muslims while only one person out of every 200,000 is an extremist, and this is a rather small number, yet troubling and controversial.”
Issa continued that this “evil” managed to expand and exploit the religious feelings, which are empty of any knowledge, awareness or wisdom. This fact created a suitable geographical location for this “evil” in political conflict regions.
He explained that combating extremism and anti-extremism requires preventing all means to hijack the Muslim Youths.
