The Unbelief Thinking among Muslim Youth in Malaysia

Abstract

The unbelief thinking is a term that refers to the absence of adherence to religion in the context of free lifestyle practice which is centred on human rights and it also includes an understanding that is rooted in humanism, secularism, pluralism and liberalism. In relation to this, a research was conducted to identify the level of unbelief thinking among Muslim youth in Malaysia which based on the following domains: Knowledge, perception and their attitude towards humanism, secularism, pluralism and liberalism. The questionnaire was constructed by a group of researchers and its content was validated by a panel of experts. This instrument was distributed to 380 respondents in 12 of the Higher Learning Institutions in Selangor, Malaysia. The reliability of the research instrument was valued based on Cronbach’s Alpha; it obtained a high result of α = 0.88. The study outcomes demonstrated the mean score for the overall level of unbelief thinking among Muslim youth was low (mean = 2.21, sd = 0.41). Whereas the mean score for knowledge constructs was high (mean = 3.76, sd = 1.03), the mean score for perception constructs was low (mean = 2.18, sd = 0.65) and the mean score for attitude constructs was also low (mean = 1.45, sd = 0.48). Additional this study was also conducted to measure the level of their Islamic knowledge. The study showed the mean score for the level of the youth’s Islamic knowledge was high (mean = 4.89, sd = 0.43). The findings revealed the level of Islamic understanding among Muslim youth was high compared to the level of their unbelief thinking, which was low. These findings portrayed despite the existence of a small number of Muslim youth who have deviated from being adherent to religion; there are still a large number of them in Higher Learning Institutions who understand Islamic knowledge highly.