Kelantan mufti on curbing Daish influence

Co-curriculum activities at school and higher learning institutions nationwide should be used as a medium to curb the involvement of Muslim students in terrorist groups such as Daish, says Kelantan Mufti, Datuk Mohamad Shukri Mohamad.

He said precautionary measures must be taken without any delay to protect the community, especially the younger generation.

Speaking to Bernama here recently, he believed the upgrading of co-curriculum modules in school would give earlier exposure to the students on the definition of 'jihad' (fighting) which was championed by Islam, but misused by the terrorist group.

Recently, the nation was stunned when three Malaysians who were supporters of the Daish militant group were involved in suicide bombings in Syria and Iraq.

They were identified as Mohd Amirul Ahmad Rahim, 26, Mohamad Syazwan Mohd Salim, 31, and Muhamad Shazani Mohd Salim, 28.

Malaysia Ahli Sunnah Waljamaah Organisation (Aswaja) president, Zamihan Mat Zin Al-Ghari said the government needed to revise the curriculum for Islamic Studies and Moral Education subjects in schools and higher learning institutions, as part of its fight againt terrorism-linked activities.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) director-general Datuk Othman Mustapha said the department had always organised preaching programmes, information sessions and dialogues to various groups including government and private sectors, non-governmental organisations, community leaders, higher learning institutions students and Islamic religious teachers.

To date, the police have detained 82 individuals in the country who were suspected to be involved in Daesh-related activities last year. Seventy-three of the detainees were Malaysians.

The figure showed an increase as compared to 2014 which saw 59 people arrested, 47 of whom were locals.

Next week, Malaysia hosts a two-day International Conference on De-Radicalisation and Countering Violent Extremism after it was chosen by the United States to host a regional digital counter-messaging centre to fight extremist ideology.