Inter-religious dialogue has been implemented in Malaysia by various organizations, be it Muslim’s or Non-Muslim’s organizations as early as 1950s.Often being carried out in the format of intellectual discourse and forum, its accessibility to the non-academician, non-scholars and non-elite is uncertain.If the inter-religious dialogue programs could not reach the grassroots, its effectiveness in addressing inter-religious issues that affected the grassroots is also doubtful.International dialogue practitioners has begun to include number of theories in their dialogue designs to reach out broader range of community.One of the theories is Contact Theory proposed by Gordon Allport (1959) aims at addressing in-group/out-group bias.Therefore, this study attempts to examine the application of Contact Theory in two models of inter-religious dialogue in Malaysia (i.e. Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia (IKIM) and Inter-faith Spiritual Fellowship (INSaF)).Case study research design was employed in order to identify the design of interreligious dialogue and the presence of Contact Theory within the two models.Data obtained through interviews and document analysis were than analysed using within-case and cross-case analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994).The finding suggest that IKIM’s and INSaF’s inter-religious dialogue models did not include any special session that allowed a real dialogue or cooperative interaction (one of important elements in Contact Theory) to take place among the participants.Without cooperative interaction among the participants, it would be difficult for these two models to reap the benefit of Contact Theory.Future research should focus on developing inter-religious dialogue design that is more appropriate for the grassroots with the inclusion of Contact Theory.

In recent years, Malaysian Muslims seem to have experienced an upsurge in religious awareness and practices. The increasing religious trends could be seen from the mode of dressing especially among the Muslim women such as the wearing of hijab and niqab; the use of Arabic words to replace the Malay words in daily conversation and greeting such as solat to replace sembahyang, iftar to replace buka puasa and Eid Mubarak to replace Selamat Hari Raya and the mushrooming of religious programs and events such as World #QuranHour and Malam Cinta Rasul. Unfortunately, despite these inspiring Islamic awareness and practices, issues related to morality, crimes, discrimination, corruption and other unethical conducts associated with the Muslims are also on the rise. This is due to the fact that what seems to have increased are only the exoteric dimension of the religion i.e. the exterior rules, regulations and visible practices, not the esoteric part i.e. the interiority and the spirituality. This paper aims at exploring the phenomenon of the pervasiveness of the exoteric aspect of religion compared to the esoteric aspect and assessing the consequences of the imbalance between these two dimensions. The expression of exoteric dimensions solely without the cultivation of the esoteric part has rendered bad impression and misinterpretation of the true Islamic teaching. A holistic Islamic practice that encompasses both exoteric and esoteric dimensions is essential for producing the best ummah.

Sejarah telah membuktikan bahawa bahasa Melayu pernah muncul sebagai lingua franca ratusan tahun yang lalu sekali gus merupakan refleksi kepada kehebatan dan ketinggian darjat bahasa tersebut. Lingua franca merujuk kepada bahasa perantara atau bahasa perhubungan antara masyarakat dengan golongan yang berlainan bahasa. Hal ini bermaksud bahasa Melayu merupakan bahasa pergaulan yang mudah dipelajari dan difahami oleh sesiapa sahaja. Lantaran itu, bahasa tersebut berupaya bertindak sebagai jambatan ke arah pengharmonian dan perpaduan dalam kalangan para penuturnya kerana keserasian serta kesefahaman mereka melalui satu bahasa pertuturan yang sama. Kehebatan bahasa Melayu juga turut terserlah apabila perjanjian- perjanjian penting antara pihak penjajah dengan Raja-raja Melayu turut dibuat dalan bahasa Melayu bertulisan jawi seperti Perjanjian Pangkor 1874. Malah ketika zaman penjajahan, bahasa Melayu tidak pernah dihapuskan oleh penjajah. Seterusnya status bahasa Melayu telah diangkat sebagai salah satu daripada elemen-elemen tradisi dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan. Situasi ini memaparkan bahasa Melayu merupakan sumber jati diri yang kukuh serta berupaya membentuk semangat patriotisme setiap penuturnya yang bergelar rakyat Malaysia. Namun realiti yang berlaku agak berbeza apabila terdapat sebilangan warganegara yang fasih berbahasa Melayu telah memaparkan sikap tidak patriotik mereka secara terang-terangan, terutamanya melalui media sosial. Justeru, kajian ini dilakukan secara kuantitatif untuk meneliti pendirian generasi muda di negara ini terhadap keupayaan bahasa Melayu sebagai wadah semangat patriotisme. Responden kajian ini terdiri daripada 400 mahasiswa Universiti Putra Malaysia dan 400 mahasiswa Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris. Hasil kajian memaparkan majoriti responden berpendirian bahawa bahasa Melayu sememangnya berupaya bertindak sebagai wadah patriotisme.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) is one example of a learning platform implemented in public and private universities in Malaysia. The platform uses a virtual learning method where interactions and discussions are conducted online. The MOOC TITAS Version 2.0 application is one of the most widely used teachingsand learning resources in public universities (UA), which incorporates more effective and interactive models, methods,and approaches as the Industrial Revolution 4.0 progresses. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the acceptance of UA students in the application of MOOC TITAS 2.0. This study uses a quantitative approach using survey techniques through the distribution of questionnaires on the google form. A total of 1373 Semester 1 student, the 2018/2019 session from five zones covering 19 UAs were involved in the study respondents. The sampling design is clustered and randomly simple. The Cronbach'salpha reliability score for the student acceptance section was 0.947. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 software for descriptive analysis. The findings show that students' acceptance of the MOOC TITAS 2.0 application was in good condition with a mean of 4.04. Studies have found that the MOOC TITAS 2.0 content has elements of user-friendliness, usability, convenience, systematic,and user satisfaction. The study concludes that the MOOC TITAS 2.0 platform is one of the best examples of e-learning implementation as an active, informative,and interactive teaching and learning resource.