Muslims have only themselves to blame for gross misconceptions on Islam as they have failed to pass on the true message of their faith to others, Malaysian Muslim Chinese Association president Mustapha Ma said.

Speaking at public talk entitled 'Addressing misconceptions about Islam' in Penang on Saturday, he said by failing to educate others both by word and action, Muslims have themselves become the cause of grave misrepresentations of Islam.

"There is danger if this prejudice and wrong message is allowed to prevail," he told the some 100-odd participants at the talk organised by the Kapitan Keling Mosque in collaboration with Perkim and Cresent Light Media Enterprise.

"Once ingrained, even after listening to a logical explanation, the prejudice remains in the subconscious," he said, adding. "When fear and threat are the ingredients, logic goes out the door".

Ma, a well-known social activist with Pemadam, the national anti-drug abuse body, was specifically referring to the global media slant portraying Muslims as 'violent, terrorists and oppressors of women's rights.

He said Muslims should shoulder some blame for these perceptions and should do more to allay the fears non-Muslims had towards the religion.

Cultural factors

Mustapha also noted that non-Muslims, especially the Chinese, were hesitant to embrace the religion more due to socio-cultural factors than religious ones.

He gave several examples including the misconceptions that Chinese converts would have to discard their family name, that they could not mingle with those who consumed pork, that they no longer could pay respects to their ancestors and that the Muslim requirement of fasting was a form of self-torture.

At the same talk, the chairperson for the event, Sirajudin Kamal said that no other religion had been "so grossly misunderstood and unfairly portrayed as Islam".

"If we stand for peace, how can we Muslims justify September 11 and the Bali bombings?" he said adding the behaviour towards women in some Muslim countries also needed to be addressed.

"Indeed, it is we ourselves who have to address these wide misconceptions about Islam with total honesty," said Sirajudin.