Citing the example of his own country, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak told a world audience Thursday that Islam is compatible with modernisation in society, while also warning that Islam had been given a "bad image" by a tiny violent minority. At a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos on the topic of how Islamic countries were coping with modernisation and Western trends, Razak praised his own country's example of how there did not have to be any contradiction in the terms. "Malaysia has had the relatively positive experience of being able to manage the practice of Islam with modernisation," he declared, noting the pluralistic nature of his society, with the country having many churches and Buddhist temples in addition to mosques. He also noted that the country's banking sector had parallel systems of Western-style business practices existing side by side with traditional Islamic sharia methods. "We like to say we are fundamentalists because we practice our religion and pray five times a day. Unfortunately, people in the West equate this with the radicals," Razak said. His worry is the perception around the world about Islam in the wake of the September 11 attacks. --More 2310 Local Time 2010 GMT
