KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — A survey found that those among major religious groups in Malaysia each felt that their own members experienced the most discrimination.

According to non-profit organisation (NGO) Architects of Diversity’s (AOD) State of Discrimination Survey 2023, 81 per cent of Hindus, 76 per cent of Christians, 63 per cent of Buddhists and 59 per cent of Muslims polled said that members of their own religious group experienced some or a lot of discrimination.

"Most were unaware about discrimination relating to animists (beliefs of many indigenous groups), with 44 per cent opting to respond with 'don’t know’,” the survey report said.

However, when asked whether they had personally experienced any form of discrimination based on their religion such as having religious beliefs or not, 22 per cent responded yes while 68 per cent said no. Another 6 per cent said they did not know while 4 per cent preferred not to say.

About 40 per cent of Hindus said they had experienced religion related discrimination in the past year, while that figure was 26 per cent for Christians, 22 per cent for Buddhists and 20 per cent for Muslims.

AOD said that the survey aims to provide a baseline study on the quantitative nature of discrimination in Malaysia relating to various identities, including religion and race.

The survey received 3,238 responses from Malaysian adults aged 18 and above.

Consistency based on the Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2020 was ensured in terms of race, age, gender and state.

On Tuesday, another survey said that Malaysian Muslims polled recently felt the three biggest threats to Islam are: the influence of the United States (59 per cent), followed by "Muslim extremists” (58 per cent), and "growing number of Christians” (52 per cent).

The Pew Research Center report said Muslims and Buddhists in six Asian countries — Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka — generally see extremists from their own faiths as one of the biggest threats to their religions.