LAST year, we undertook a project to meet with Malay-Muslim youth and to find out how they felt about their identities as Malays and Muslims. The project is still ongoing.

What started out as a project based on our curiosity morphed into something bigger – in fact, we were quite naive when we first started out.

It was our first IMAN Research (IMAN) project, and we wanted to explore Peninsular Malaysia. Simply put, we just wanted to know what it meant to be young, Malay and Muslim.

And so we launched our Assalamualaikum Project. We began with 30 participants from Bangi, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Gombak, Kedah and Terengganu. Both sexes participated equally, and we discovered many things – Malay youth wherever they are from are willing and wanting to discuss sensitive issues, and are articulate. They may be shy at first, but are not meek about voicing their feelings about politics, religion and race.

So what did we discover?

Among many things that knocked us back for six, are the following:

Resentment and distrust against non-Malays’ economic advancement, and increasingly, of other Malays’ success.

While most have an ideal view of an Islamic state, this is not demonstrated into a revolutionary zeal à la ISIS propaganda. Most do not agree with the violence. However, they are pulled into two directions: the violence may be abhorrent but DAESH are their Muslim brothers and sisters. They have to… sort of support them, no?

“Being Malay is equatable to being bad, lazy, corrupt. So the only (identity) we have is being a Muslim.”

This statement got us stumped, but we resumed our questioning. Why did they feel this way? And why were these sentiments the same across the board? Trust fund babies of Taman Tun Dr Ismail, working-class young Malays of Gombak, aspiring middle-class professionals in Bangi and not forgetting the youth we met in Kedah and Terenganu – they all said the same thing.

They felt as if they were under siege. They have been told at school, in college and university, by their families and teachers that everyone hated them for being Malay. No matter how hard they worked and did their best to dispel the negative perception others had of the race, it was not good enough.

Also, if the Malays acted and believed in Islamic principles, there would be no corruption, no political malaise in this country at all. Politicians talk and tout Malay rights, but Malaysia is in a mess. And that can be solved by implementing shariah law in Malaysia.

Even if they themselves were not too sure what hudud was all about.

This conversation we are having with youths is still ongoing. I had just come back from Johor Baru on the invitation of Bait Al Amanah, a Johor think-tank, and we have just finished a couple of focus group discussions with college students. While the responses were more varied, and this could be due to the fact that they were university students studying political science and literature, the same sentiments kept coming out.

This new batch we met all said that they had a slim future – and with more and more unemployed graduates in the market, what could they turn to?

To say it would be religion – even they themselves were conflicted, and yet, all they had for an identity was that of a Muslim.

Their sentiments, if we are able to summarise it at this stage, were that they were young, Malay and Muslim. They were feeling more and more disempowered and disenchanted by their own country every day. They may not agree with ISIS/DAESH, but they turn to one identity because that is all they have to give them hope for a future. – May 22, 2017.

* Dina Zaman left the media to found IMAN Research (IMAN) with her friends. IMAN is a research centre focusing on society, religion and perception.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.