Ustaz Dr Zamihan Mat Zin, the former religious officer at the Malaysian Home Ministry blames radicalism on the Saudi Wahhabi Ideology. Dr Zamihan, a Home Ministry religious officer currently attached to the prisons department, has been helping rehabilitate religious extremists such as the detained Ilamic Sate (IS) militants.
Through his interaction with them he has no doubt that it is their exposure to Wahhabism/Salafism that radicalised them.
Dr Zamihan says the Wahhabi/Salafist way is extremely rigid and rather extreme. It can split Muslim society, he warns, because its followers view Muslims who do not follow their way – as well as non-Muslims – as apostates so it is halal (permissible) to spill their blood. He points out that apart from IS, a number of radical Islamist militant groups like Jamaah Islamiyah, Au Syyaf, Al Qeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, Boko Haram and As Shabaab all draw on the teachings of Wahhabism/Salafism to justify their brutal acts, claiming it as part of a j*had (holy war).
Dr Zamihan – who has a doctorate in Aqidah (faith) and Philosophy and is pursuing another PhD with a thesis on “Managing Conflict: A Study of IS” – says these extremists feel that only they are truly Islamic and right.
“They don’t accept the views or the religious authority of others, including the fatwa council or religious departments. “They would kill, rob, kidnap, hijack, confiscate assets and property, steal weapons, carry out suicide attacks, buy material to make bombs, then make and use them because they want to destroy the current system of government, which to them is ‘unIslamic’ and is ‘astray’.
Johor, Kedah, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak and Selangor are states that have banned Wahhabism/Salafism.
Dr Zamihan is the president of Aswaja, short for Pertubuhan Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah Malaysia, a group that is trying to roll back the Wahhabi/Salafist influence in the country