Non-Muslims are 'customers' and they must be treated with care and respect, said Muslim evangelist Noor Mohamed recently.

According to him, the Quran calls on believers to approach non-believers with 'wisdom, good preaching and behaviour'.

"But the problem with Muslims here is that they are not living Islam in their actions," said the secretary of the Islamic Propagation Centre International Malaysia.

"That is why non-Muslims are judgmental about them," he added at the talk entitled 'Clash of Cilivisation: The Islamic Verdict' in Penang.

Noor Mohamed said non-Muslims must also not accept everything that the West dishes out as the truth.

"We should develop a balanced view," he added, nothing that non-Muslims are prone to making assumptions about Muslims without asking for clarification.

Positive aspects

However, Noor Mohamed also welcomed the positive aspects of Western concepts, saying that much can be learnt from them.

"There are many good things to learn from them such as their technologies, management and problem solving skills," he said when met later.

"In our training, we are not afraid to use Western materials. Often we take the good from the West and Japan and combine it in our programmes.

"As such, when we go into comparative analysis of Western and Eastern philosophies, we also follow the same approach," he added.

He also dismissed views that Muslims are terrorist and that Islam condones violence.

"Show me one verse in the scripture that promotes violence among people and I will leave this religion immediately," he stressed.

SUSAN LOONE is malaysiakini's stringer in Penang.