KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 ― In its Friday sermon today, Malaysia’s federal Islamic authorities warned that Muslims are now stuck between two extremes: the liberals, and militant jihadists Islamic State (IS).

Accusing liberals of questioning and provoking the position of Islam in the country, the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) urged Muslims nationwide to initiate “jihad” by rejecting such ideologies, referring to the “holy struggle” that is mandated of Muslims.

“We should reject the two extremisms … We believe the effort to curb these two extremisms which are religious and liberalism extremists, is a major 'jihad',” the sermon said today.

“Especially when this involves the effort to preserve the position, upholding and exalting the position of Islam as the religion of the state.”

The sermon accused liberals of being worried with the allegedly balanced and just implementation of Islamic teachings and codes in the country, causing them to attack religious institutions by sowing distrust and misperception against them.

“This manifested provocation, is no longer in the form of merely ideas and thoughts, but has directly touched on the authority, job scope and functions of religious agencies either in the state or federal level.

“Even more saddening, the function and role of kings as the head of religion has also been questioned,” added the sermon.

In calling for “jihad”, Jakim has compared the liberals to IS, which it said has skewed the belief of “jihad” to mean solely armed struggle, leading to the killing and slaughter of innocents.

Despite that, it also blamed the liberals for alleging that religious schools and institutions of being a “ticking time bomb” in producing militant extremists such as IS fighters.

“In reality, not even 10 per cent of detainees related to IS was made of students or ex-students of religious institutions. The liberal extremists seem uncomfortable with the practice of Islam in this country,” it claimed.

In January, Jakim’s Director-General Datuk Othman Mustapha denounced the questioning of religious authorities as part of a liberalism movement that seeks to uphold individual interpretations of Islam.

In a previous sermon in October, Jakim had also claimed that liberal thinking is deviant, and together with pluralism, a threat to Malay-Muslim unity by weakening the community’s faith.