KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — The concept of wasatiyyah or moderation has been proposed to be incorporated in the school and university curricula to raise understanding of the concept, says Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The prime minister said the government was making efforts to gather experts from every religion in the country to discuss the wasatiyyah concept to make it the best practice and way of life for the country’s populace.

"Surely if we study all the religions, each has practices that can be said to be universal although different in creed but in terms of similarities, whether it is Christianity or Buddhism, there’s the meaning of moderation.”

Najib said this in the Dewan Rakyat today in reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Othman Abdul (BN-Pendang) on whether the government planned to incorporate the wasatiyyah concept in the education curricula and to gather religious scholars to discuss the concept.

He said the government was aware that it was a difficult task to inculcate the wasatiyyah concept among society in Malaysia and the world compared to inculcating hatred.

"This is a big challenge for us because to arouse anger and in fact, hatred is easier than getting people to practise noble values such as wasatiyyah as enjoined by Islam,” he said.

Najib said the DWN’s other objectives were building a harmonious Malaysian society by imbibing supreme values and ethics and based on the wasatiyyah concept, and making wasatiyyah as a way of life for Malaysians in all aspects including education, economy, administration, social and politics.

The prime minister said the government had also drawn up the five-year strategic plan for the wasatiyyah approach, 2016 to 2020.

He said the Wasatiyyah Institute of Malaysia, Prime Minister’s Department, was entrusted as the coordinating agency in implementing the wasatiyyah approach.

"Through the establishment of DWN, the National-Level Wasatiyyah Policy Implementation Coordinating Committee was set up chaired by me.

"The government is confident of being able to spread this approach widely to all levels of society, in ensuring stability and Malaysia’s strength as a plural society, heading towards the TN50 generation in the coming era,” he added.

Earlier, Najib told the Dewan Rakyat that the Malaysian government managed to bring back Tayudin Anjut and Abdul Rahman Summas, two of the five Malaysians abducted eight months ago by the Abu Sayyaf terror group.

"They had been brought to meet with their respective families at my residence. What is important is that the Malaysian government will continue to assist the two victims in terms of welfare and treatment, to ensure their life is back to normal,” he said.

The prime minister also expressed thankfulness to the Philippine government, Sabah state government, Wisma Putra, Royal Malaysian Police and Kelab Putera 1Malaysia on the efflorts taken to bring back the victims. — Bernama