Religious Freedom in Pakistan: A Case Study of Religious Minorities

Inter-religious harmony is crucial in maintaining political and national stability. Living in a peaceful and harmonious environment is important when the society consists of diverse races and religious adherents. The existence of minor tension in the society to some extent has jeopardised inter-religious relations. The failure to preserve religious harmony could expose the society to conflict and chaos. Thus, this paper aims to discuss and elaborate the pertinent elements in sustainable harmony among multi-religious society in Perak. The paper elaborates on the fundamental factors contributing to socio-religious harmony among multi-religious society. Library research method is used in addressing the situation of religious harmony in Perak and the pertinent element should be fostered in order to preserve religious harmony. This paper also emphasises that elements such as acceptance, understanding, co-operation as well as right and justice are significant elements in sustaining religious harmony. Hence, the discussion is aimed to build a sustainable concept of multi-religious harmony in Perak. The findings could also encourage multi-religious society to maintain and build a strong relationship among them.

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Towards ensuring inter-religious harmony in a multi-religious society of Perak

http://www.cell.com/article/S2405844022012646/pdf

The framework of socio-religious harmony in Sabah, East Malaysia: An application of Fuzzy Delphi method

For countries with religiously diverse populations that have a record of tense relations with each other, the notion of a covenantal pluralism, if successfully established and entrenched as an orga...

Malaysia’s Creeping Islamization—and Dimming Prospects for Covenantal Pluralism

Abstract Malaysia has been described as a country which successfully implements a “moderate” Islam. However, sentiments amongst Malaysians, particularly on social media reveal tensions regarding racial and religious matters which has intensified amidst the changing political landscape of the nation. Islamization remains a controversial issue as reflected in the public’s mixed reaction to the government’s unofficial Islamization policy. This paper discusses the representation of Islamization by Malaysia’s popular alternative media via in-depth interviews with experts in related fields. The findings indicate that most informants perceived that media reporting of Islamization is framed negatively. This is aggravated by the media’s usage of strong language, negative generalizations, inappropriate pictures and general lack of sensitivity to racial and religious issues. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Perceptions of Reporting on Islamization by Malaysia’s Popular Alternative Media: An Accurate Representation?

The subject of inter-religious relationship among different religious adherents is crucial in determining social peace and harmony in a multi religious country like Malaysia. The question to what extend the society is susceptible to religious issues remains uncertain. This study will contribute in understanding the Malaysian socio-religious harmony status among the multi-religious adherents through development of the social religious index. To suffice part of this effort, the aim of this study was to develop the socio-religious harmony index instrument which is viable to measure socio-religious harmony level in Malaysia. However, the development of a reliable and valid instrument relies heavily on the quality of the variables or the indicators to be used to measure the index. Hence, the instrument was developed using key informants’ input via experts’ panelist which included selected stakeholders from various backgrounds such as academics, ministry officers, policy makers, non-government organization members, and head or representative of religious groups. To effectively manage the input from the expert panelists, the study adopted Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) as main methodology to determine the indicators and sub-indicators (quantitative indicators) to be included in the index instrument questionnaires. Fuzzy Delphi was conducted in two rounds: FDM round 1 to determine the main indicators and FDM 2 to determine the sub-indicators to measure each main indicators. Based on the experts’ consensus, the findings of FDM 1 proposed 22 socio-religious harmony indicators. For FDM 2, based on the indicators, the experts proposed 53 sub-indicators as quantitative indicators to measure each indicators. These indicators and their respective sub-indicators will be used to form the index instrument.

Ahamad Tarmizi Talib

Papers

Socio-religious harmony index instrument indicators for malaysia