KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 ― PAS Youth is offering to teach young Muslims the dangers of joining the Islamic State (IS), saying the party's many Islamic scholars could use their professional influence to stop the militant movement's recruitment of Malaysian youths.

Wing chief Suhaizan Kaiat said the party is worried that more Malaysians are being drawn to the movement's romanticised jihadist struggle and are taking up arms with the IS in the Middle East.

He insisted that the IS and its propagated ideals do not represent the true struggles of Islam, which is a religion of peace.

“Among their strategies is to recruit the young, especially those ignorant of their religion.

“With the use of the jihad, martyrdom and rewards in paradise as baits, some Malaysians participate in ISIL but without any religious foundation,” he said in a statement here, referring to the movement by its previous moniker, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

But Suhaizan insisted that IS is backed by a “hidden Zionist” agenda that aims to create division and discord among Muslims.

“PAS rejects this method used in ISIL's jihad. Islam promotes peace, not hostility,” he said.

To put an end to the recruitment drive, the PAS Youth chief urged government agencies, NGOs and civil society groups to use the knowledge of his party's Islamic scholars to teach Malaysian youths the dangers of joining IS and what “true Islam” is about.

As many as 40 Malaysians are currently fighting for the IS in Syria, with some saying that the jihad was mandated by the Prophet Muhammad, business news service Bloomberg reported last month.

Some of the jihadists identified as Malaysian come from diverse backgrounds and include a former Kedah PAS leader Mohd Lotfi Ariffin, who was died in Syria following an ambush, and a UK-educated 38-year-old who held a job with a construction company, Ahmad Salman Abdul Rahim.

On August 11 this year, Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reported that Malaysian police have revealed local jihadists who joined IS are now training their sights on Putrajaya.

A senior Malaysian police official was reported as saying that suspected jihadists had planned attacks on entertainment venues in Kuala Lumpur and a Carlsberg factory in Petaling Jaya.

The violence and brutality committed by terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria poses a threat to the Middle East and, if left unchecked, the world, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations said in a statement on September 27.

Malaysians and Indonesians fighting for the IS have also reportedly banded together over their common language and are said to be planning to expand their numbers to form a “katibah”, a military unit of 100 men roughly equivalent to a company.

Malaysia has designated IS a terrorist group.