SHAH ALAM - The competition between Umno and Pas is a political 'ijtihad' which is a race to do good.
'Ijtihad', according to the lexicographers, is derived from the arabic term 'juhd', which means employment of effort or endeavor in performing a certain activity.
"There is no animosity between Islamic or non-Islamic beliefs,” said Umno secretary-general Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki in a post on Facebook on Tuesday.
His statement is believed to refer to the situation of political disputes between the leaders of the two parties ahead of the state polls which have seen some leaders labelling other individuals as enemies of Islam.
When answering a netizen’s question in the comment section about the good things Umno is doing now compared to Pas, Asyraf listed 10 points related to the matter.
Among them is placing Islam as the federal religion in the constitution, and introducing the Islamic Education Policy and Islamic Financial Policy whereby Malaysia is now known as the pioneer and leader of the Islamic banking and takaful system.
"It is the same with the development of Islamic Higher Education Institutions such as the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM).
"Umno introduced the National Tahfiz Policy by targeting 125,000 professional huffaz and established TvAlhijrah, IKIM radio and various religious broadcasts to spread Islam.
"There are many more if I want to list them. Therefore, do not dispute the commitment and efforts made by others just because the party does not have the Islamic label,” he said.