People's support needed to contain extremism threat - Salleh

He said the phenomenon was dangerous because it allowed the enemies of Islam to slander against the religion of Allah as a religion of terrorists.

"The attitude shown by such groups does not reflect the true religion of Islam because of the fact that Islam does not disturb its followers, tolerant and moderate but there are a certain group that is extreme in its actions.

"This group is not interested in politics. For them politics is nonsensical.What is important for them is to develop an Islamic state according to their preferences," Salleh said in his latest blog posting.

He said extremism is an extreme attitude that does not recognise the opinions of others, rejects tolerance, abusive in speech, hard hitting in 'dakwah' preachings and defames others who do not accept their views.

Salleh said so far the country has managed to contain the extremism group.

"John Dauth in his article in The Telegraph stated Malaysia is a successful model state, creating communal harmony and a moderate attitude among its people.

"This success is due to three factors: the government's ability to strengthen the country's economic growth, create harmony in society and the moderate attitude of its people," he added.