The frightening news of terrorism by Muslims in Europe and America is a phenomenon that may have its origin in the way Islam is taught at the tertiary level. This suggestion is strengthened by the fact that some of the suicide bombers and gunmen were university students. In Malaysia, the TITAS affair at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, the anti-Christian Seminar at Universiti Institut Teknologi MARA, the anti-Lesbian and Gay seminar at UTM and the latest Khafir Harbi Seminar at Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia are causes for concern that educational institutions may be the breeding ground for future terrorists as these kinds of attitudes towards education will produce a Muslim student that alienates his or her self from the global universal concerns as a problem of humanity. It is important for Muslim educators to firstly emphasize the place of Islam in the historical and civilizational context of humanity, to concentrate more on the Prophet Muhammad’s magnanimity and embracing of humankind characteristics in the hadith corpus, to dwell much more on the Qur’anic Verses that calls for a universality of faith, to explain the cultural and political layering of religious practices and institutions as well as their infallibility as they are a product of man and not of God, and finally to discuss global issues such as pollution, starvation, corruption, disaster relief, health and many more under the umbrella of Muslims being the ‘vice-gerent’ or ‘khilafah’ or ‘caretaker’ of the welfare of the world and of man. In this way we can say that Islam is part of the human civilizational construct rather than at the present in which it is isolated within its siege mindset of ‘we and the other’.

Professor Dr. Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi is a prolific writer in architecture, politics, social issues, religious matters and education. Prof. Dr. Mohamad Tajuddin was educated in the USA at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee where he obtained his Masters and Bachelor of Science in Architecture. He was Professor of Architecture at UTM for 10 years and now at UCSI University. Professor Tajuddin has authored and published 40 books to date on architecture concerning Islam, the mosque, housing, community building and planning of administrative centres. He was a columnist for several years with the Utusan Malaysia and with The Star. Prof. Tajuddin is also responsible for writing hundreds of articles on architecture for the encyclopedia of architecture published by the national publication. He has written many articles in the media concerning various issues of architecture, democracy, multi-culturalism and education. He is also frequently interviewed by online media news like malaysiakini and Freemalaysiatoday on national political and social issues.