Undergraduates should take on responsibility to tackle misconception about Malays and Muslims: Zahid

KUALA LUMPUR: Undergraduates should take on the responsibility of correcting the misconception that the Malays and Muslims in the country are extremists and terrorists.
Making this call, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said, Umno is often misinterpreted and misunderstood as an ultra-Malay and terrorist party just because it champions the rights of the Malays and Islam.
However, he added it was only right that the Muslims themselves, especially the students, change the misconception that is created to instil hatred towards the community.
"The term ultra and Islamophobia was made a jargon so that outsiders would hate us.
"However, it is not their responsibility to correct this perception, but ours. The responsibility of those inside this hall," he said when addressing some 300 undergraduates at the National Student Leadership Conference (Pemanas), here, today.
Ahmad Zahid said they cannot expect other people to set the record straight as may deliberately-distort the perception.
The Umno acting deputy president, while acknowledging that Umno is a Malay and Muslim party, stressed that it had never marginalised other races and religions.
"Umno is fair to all other race, religion, ethnic groups, cultures and languages. When Umno moves as the backbone of the government, we never set others aside. That's the beauty of Islam and Malay," he said.
Ahmad Zahid also called on students pursuing higher education to regard themselves as on par with those in other countries, even in terms of knowledge and intellectuality.
"In fact, the graduates the universities produce are as good as those outside the country," he added.