KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 (AFP) -The government will crack down on Islamic extremists because it does not want Malaysia's people to be oppressed like those in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Saturday.
Groups which deliberately influenced students to focus only on religious education and to be politically active at the expense of other knowledge were actually "betraying the Islamic teachings", he said.
The government would clamp down on those opposing the "true teachings of Islam", Mahathir was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.
"We will fight to the end these factions which oppose Islamic teachings because we don't want the people in our country to be oppressed like the people of Afghanistan."
Militants were "traitors" prepared to rob, kill, threaten places of worship of other religions and topple the government through violence and would not be treated lightly, he said at a Settlers Day ceremony at Dungun.
"These are the people who create chaos, resulting in government not being able to concentrate on development because it is spending time and money on curbing such activities."
Malaysia has linked members of a local militant group, alleged to have received military training in Afghanistan to try to topple the government, to the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) which wants more rigid Islamic governance.
Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said last month the leader of the Malaysian Mujahedin Group (KMM) was Nik Adli Nik Aziz, son of PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.
Mahathir was quoted by the Sun daily on Saturday as saying there were "certain parties" who wanted the country to be administered like Afghanistan.
"They want us to be like Afghanistan and if we do not do it, we are not Islamic enough and they reject Malaysia as an Islamic nation," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
The premier said the government's conscience was clear that it was running the country in the correct Islamic way.
The government has in recent months arrested a total of 15 people believed to be involved in the KMM, which has been blamed for a spate of crimes including bombings of a church and a temple.
They were ordered to be held without trial for two years at the Kamunting detention camp in northern Perak state under the Internal Security Act (ISA), but police said Friday six had been released and placed under restricted residence.
The government has defended the use of detention without trial saying that underground movements trying to topple the government violently had been defeated by using the ISA and other laws.
Critics, however, accuse the government of simply using the ISA to crush political opposition, a charge it denies.