Malaysia promotes moderation to counter negative perception of Islam

Global Movement of Moderates Foundation (GMMF) executive chairman and chief executive officer Datuk Dr Nasharudin Mat Isa said in recent years, many things happened which contributed towards a negative image of Islam in the form of Islamophobia and that was the reason why Malaysia should play a role.

He said Malaysia was well positioned to promote moderation due to uniqueness of the existing model in the country.

"Several issues contributed to the negative image of Islam. Starting with the Taliban militant, Al Qaeda and the latest, Daish. We, in Malaysia, are in very good position to portray the face and the practice of Islam in the practical form compared to other countries," he said.

He said this when presenting a working paper titled 'Driving Moderate Thoughts and Narrative Feedback in Tackling Extremism' at the Addressing Extremism Terrorism Seminar at the University of Jordan here recently.

Nasharudin said the threat of violence in the world today is very 'real', therefore in 2010, Malaysia took the initiatives to promote moderate approach to the world.

"We do not claim we are the earliest (in implementing moderation initiatives). However, the difference is that we want to turn it into a global movement. The Western world must turn its references on Islam to "another world" and not only towards the Arab world.

"Currently, in the Western world's perception, Islam is the Arabs and vice versa. This perception is incorrect, Islam does not belong to Arabs and not all Arabs are Muslims. If they want to look at Islam, look at the world at "the other side". Most populous Muslim country in the world is Indonesia. In China alone there are about 50 to 60 million of Muslims," he said.

He said GMMF has implemented various programmes to promote moderation not only in the country but also globally. Apart from religious, it also focuses on various aspects.

Nasharudin said GMMF has organised several conferences and the latest being the Role of Islam in the World Peace International Seminar to be held on Dec 6- 7 at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

"This seminar is organised with cooperation from SMEs. It will feature speakers from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, the United States and Singapore," he said.

He said GMMF would also establish cooperation with International Moderation Forum, an organisation in Jordan similar to GMMF and they would jointly organise a conference to be held here in May or June next year.

Nasharudin said that GMMF would also continue with the roundtable discussions involving ASEAN countries which started in Singapore in July last year, followed by the second meeting held in Laos a few months ago, with the third one to be held in the Philippines next year. It will then be held in Cambodia next.

"We will also set up 'Distinguished Lectures' in which we will invite famous speakers to give talks. We have also signed up a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Universiti Islam Antarabangsa and Universiti Utara Malaysia," he said, adding that GMMF was expected to be turned into an information centre through collaboration with the university.

GMMF has cooperated with various parties abroad, which in turn, invited the foundation to share Malaysia's experience in promoting moderation and counter-terrorism, in addition to explaining about Islam.

GMMF was established to become the main reference point for the coordination and dissemination of information and campaign materials to those interested in participating to fight extremism.