With the spectre of yesterday’s deadly bomb attack in Jakarta still fresh on the minds of Malaysians, the Department of Islamic Development (JAKIM) announced that while it has made inroads towards educating Muslims in the country to beware of Islamic State teachings, they have not been able to make a dent in Muslim extremist actrivities online.
JAKIM director-general Othman Mustapha told Bernama that the federal agency has reached more than a million Muslim Malaysians to urge them not to adopt dangerous Daesh ideology, referring to another name for Islamic State.
“Last year, we targeted face-to-face explanations to one million people but we exceeded the target, and at every session they gave good response as to the position of Islam on the issue,” he said.
JAKIM’s outreach programmes included pointing out that jihad – the concept of struggling for the sake of Islam – did not mean a call to militancy or terror.
However, JAKIM has been unable to break down the online networks currently working to recruit more ISIS operatives from Malaysia.
“Those who get involved in these activities were influenced through the Internet, where it’s harder to control. But I believe the relevant authorities have a way to control the spread of their information,” Othman told The Malay Mail Online‘s Aizyl Azlee.
He also indicated a more robust monitoring operation for online ISIS activity in the immediate future.
“We work together with the security agencies as a strategic network. But following the incident in Jakarta yesterday, I think the security enforcers will take over.”
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for yesterday’s attack in Central Jakarta, which resulted in seven deaths and dozens of wounded.
