@article{Rabi’ah Aminudin_Izzuddin M. Jaafar_Elmira Akhmetova_2020, title={Going to Hell or Heaven? An Analysis of Malaysian Muslims’ Perspectives on Extremism in Religion}, volume={28}, url={https://journals.iium.edu.my/intdiscourse/index.php/id/article/view/1663}, DOI={10.31436/id.v28i2.1663}, abstractNote={<p>Religion has long been the focus of research looking into terrorism<br>and extremism. However, previous researches tend to focus heavily on terrorist<br>and extremist groups who have committed acts of terrorism. This study further<br>expands the literature by analysing how the public perceive extreme elements in<br>their daily religious routines in a multicultural society in Malaysia, employing<br>four dimensions of religiosity, namely, physical, social, cognitive, and spiritual.<br>This research utilised a survey method and distributed it to 497 Malay Malaysian<br>Muslims in 2019. Using descriptive statistical analysis, it was found that there<br>is a tendency for Malaysian Muslims to be more perceptive towards religious<br>extremism, as the majority of the sampling population showed strong support<br>towards the visible aspects of religiosity indicators, such as strict adherence to<br>religious dress code and physical rituals that can be managed and administered<br>through the establishment of a legal institution and can reinforce their status<br>quo as the majority group in society, rather than intangible aspects of extreme<br>religiosity, such as cognitive and spiritual aspects. However, this study also<br>found that extreme religiosity in religious practices is not necessarily an indicator for society to support extremist religious ideologies, as the Malaysian<br>Muslims also showed positive tendencies of living in a multi-faith society.<br>This finding provides insights into how the prevention of religious extremism<br>should address social elements of religiosity and should not be taken care<br>of in isolation, as well as should consider the complex historical and social<br>dimensions of society. As such, this paper contributes to the understanding of<br>Malaysian Muslims’ perceptions of religious extremism in their daily religious<br>practices in a multicultural society.</p>}, number={2}, journal={Intellectual Discourse}, author={Rabi’ah Aminudin and Izzuddin M. Jaafar and Elmira Akhmetova}, year={2020}, month={Dec.}, pages={623–647} }