DCP Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, principal assistant director of Bukit Aman’s Special Branch’s Counter-Terrorism division, urged the country’s Muslims to reject any extreme beliefs that are not in line with Sunni Islam and instead hold on to the moderate Shafie sect of Sunni Islam.

He said the country’s religious authorities have already issued a statement confirming the existence and spread in Malaysia of an extremist belief with the characteristics of the Salafi Jihadi ideology, but said they feel that it is not yet a threat to national security.

“Immediate action has to be taken to ensure our mistake in handling the spread of JI beliefs in 1985 is not repeated.

“To ensure we are successful in combating the threat of Daesh to its roots, we have to obliterate the spread of the Salafi Jihadi ideology,” he said in an opinion piece published in Malay daily Berita Harian today, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.

According to Ayob Khan, the police had, back in 1985, detected JI’s two top leaders Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir entering the country, where they then spread extremist beliefs in line with the Salafi Jihadi ideology. But local religious authorities had then felt that their beliefs were not a threat to national security.

The duo were then able to expand the JI group until it became defunct in December 2001, he said, stressing the importance of curbing such beliefs to  avert threats to the unity of local Muslims and national security.

Ayob Khan traced the use of the Salafi Jihadi ideology back to terrorist group al-Qaeda that emerged in the late 1980s and which he said exploited verses from the Quran and hadith to justify their acts of violence.

After the wane of al-Qaeda’s influence, the Salafi Jihadi ideology was adopted by various terror groups exploiting Islam, namely JI, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP), Darul Islam, Lashka Al Toiba and its latest addition Daesh, he said.

Explaining the Salafi Jihadi ideology, Ayob Khan said it was against the democratic system, secular constitutions and voting systems, besides allowing the killing of police and secular government and the seizure of their property.

Among other things, those adhering to such an ideology labeled secular Muslims as apostates that ought to be fought against, viewing the spilling of blood of Muslims who allegedly commit heresy as permissible and also consider non-Muslims as ‘kafir harbi’ or infidels that should be killed, he said.

While IS has been hit by the deaths of two top leaders and its funding affected, Ayob Khan cautioned that new groups who base their cause on the same deviant ideology will emerge.

“In this context, all quarters especially enforcement agencies and religious experts have to find an integrated and comprehensive approach to explain to Muslims about the deviation of the Salafi Jihadi ideology,” he said.

He stressed the importance of a counter-narrative as the country is faced with an ideology war instead of a weaponry war.

“As long as the ideology issue is not tackled effectively, the issue of the threat of terrorist groups that exploit Islam for their interests will not be successfully eliminated,” he said, also noting that such terror groups were also exploiting the oppression of Muslims abroad to draw new recruits.

Local police have arrested many IS suspects and foiled several plots for terror attacks by those with IS links, including a recent plan to attack targets in the Klang Valley on the eve of August 31.