`M'sians understand meaning of true jihad'

`M'sians understand meaning of true jihad' KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Muslims understand that the improvement of their institutions, democratisation, education and balanced economic development are the true "jihad" (holy war), Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday. He said this approach emphasised the centrality of the pursuit of knowledge. Malaysia is proud of its record of fostering a peaceful, democratic and progressive multi-religious society that is also a Muslim society, he said during the general policy debate at the 33rd session of the Unesco General Conference in Paris. The text of his speech was made available here. "We educate, persuade and train people to seek their common prosperity in a progressive economy rather than their mutual destruction," he said. The country's efforts for unity draw on the moral and religious sources of all their people but they were also drawn officially on the teachings of Islam, he said. Hishammuddin said education had an absolutely crucial role in inoculating people against racial or religious hatred. "Open, inquiring minds, pondering the wonders of the world, seeking to contribute to humanity are invariably also peaceful minds," he said. Ignorance of each other caused people to fear one another and, fearing one another, to hate, he said. "In a world in which people of different religious and racial backgrounds are coming into contact with each other more and more, we should seek to understand in detail rather than impose grand visions dreamt up in fear and triumphalism; visions meant to congratulate ourselves and demonise others, or simply to sell airtime," he said. ? Bernama