A higher education syllabus on Islamophobia is being developed

PUTRAJAYA: The government is in the early stages of developing a syllabus or academic discipline on Islamophobia and how to deal with it for higher education institutions, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Dr Zulkifli Hasan.

He said the syllabus is being examined by the Ministry of Higher Education which is also holding discussions with several foreign universities that have offered such courses.

“We recently also held a meeting with the Association of Muslim Social Scientists and several other associations to discuss the formation of a new academic discipline to deal with Islamophobia thoroughly.

“God willing, in the near future, there will be an offer for the program,” he told reporters after the Usrah MADANI 4.0 themed “Multi-faith Community Interaction on Islamophobia” here, today.

Zulkifli said such education is important to deal with society’s ignorance of the true meaning and teachings of Islam, which is one of the main causes of anger and fear of Islam and its people.

“I invite Malaysians, all races, all religions to try to understand each other because that is the best approach to deal with the issue of Islamophobia as well as the issue of racial prejudice and so on.

“We need to be a society that learns to know each other,” he said.

Meanwhile, today’s usrah or lecture was delivered by Prof Khaled Beydoun, a law lecturer from Arizona States University, United States who is famous for his volume in commenting on issues related to Islamophobia.

Khaled said it is the responsibility of every Muslim to interact with followers of other religions and discuss unpleasant matters with them regarding the true teachings of Islam.

He said Malaysia has the potential to be a center of intellectual discourse on the matter and can take the lead in breaking the modern mental ‘colonization’ by combating widespread misunderstandings of Islam.

“You (Malaysians) have some of the best Islamic universities, learning centers and leaders. This is where conferences and intellectual exchanges should take place.

“Every leading Islamic scholar in my opinion, whether in the United States, Europe or Canada, should spend some time studying in Malaysia, because you have a system that we can learn and take back to our countries in the West,” he said.

— BERNAMA

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