KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — The Malaysian government will consult Islamic clerics and Muslim professionals to bolster its efforts to counter the ideology spread by global terror group Islamic State (IS), Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today.

The prime minister voiced confidence that with the two groups working in tandem to produce comprehensive religious material that can be acceptable by all parties, Malaysia would be able to become the counter-messaging centre it seeks to be in the global war against terror.

“We make sure we have right content. We will get the ulama and Muslim professionals together so that the counter-narrative would be something that people can accept,” he told a news conference after hosting the Asean Summit here.

Najib said it was essential to put out a powerful counter-message from both parties because the IS propaganda unit might be able to “pre-condition” people to turn away from the real Islam if the militants could anticipate the message.

He also said that the government needed to improve its Internet and social media skills, which has become the front for the war on terror.

“We must also be quite savvy on how to use the Internet and social media. That I must say, we are somewhat lacking. We do need to improve the medium that we use disseminate our counter messaging,” Najib said.

Malaysia agreed with United States to make Malaysia counter-messaging centre to fight violent extremism during a bilateral meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday.