Take heed - the IS threat goes beyond religion

The revelation by home minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi that 61 Malaysians had been identified by the police for fighting alongside IS militants in Syria and Iraq, and that 10 of them have been killed, is indeed a wake-up call.
And that is not counting the suspects detained here for IS-related offences, including students, academics and civil servants, as well as those on transit here who were caught and deported back to their countries.
Numerous reports have emerged about the tactics the IS uses to recruit members from around the globe. Our intelligence forces appear to be well connected and successful operations have been carried out.
But the fight goes beyond that. As rightfully pointed out by Malaysian Chinese Association president Liow Tiong Lai at the party’s 66th anniversary celebrations on Sunday, there must be a nationwide response from all Malaysians to embrace modera-tion and reject extremism to help check the spread of the IS propaganda.
“There is definitely no room for any form of extremism, especially religious extremism, in a multi-racial and multi-religious country,” he said. “We absolutely cannot tolerate the rise of religious extremism.”
The IS threat goes beyond any specific religion. We must not be blinded by the fact that only Muslims are being recruited. Any form of ideology that taps into the ideals and vulnerabilities of the people can have the potential to spread its influence further.
We also cannot take comfort that attacks carried out by IS against fellow Muslims as well as people of other faiths are far away in foreign lands.
And we definitely cannot discount the possibility that these militants, hardened and trained in real battles, will eventually return home and spawn their own terror here.
Liow, who is transport minister, reminded us about the importance of moderation, which has been the key foundation of our nation from its birth.
The founding fathers knew that moderation would always play a key role in ironing out political
differences and were well aware of the danger of those who use religion to further their political aspirations.
We are a multi-racial and multi-religious country where our diversity is our strength.
We can see from the IS threat, and also in other examples of extremism in other faiths, that terror in the name of religion, once ignited, will be very hard to contain.
And such terror is not always about armed violence, but terror that can permeate various aspects of society because of overzealous officials and citizens who want to enforce religious laws based on their interpretations not only on adherents of their faith, but also on others.