TAHAP PERSEPSI MUSLIM DAN NON-MUSLIM MENGENAI HUBUNGAN INTERAKSI ANTARA AGAMA: KAJIAN TINJAUAN DI NEGERI KEDAH DAN SELANGOR (Muslim and Non Muslim Perception on Inter-Religion Interaction: A Case Study in Kedah and Selangor)

Abstract

Perception is a complex mechanism that shapes up an individual’s way of thinking from his/her interaction with the surrounding, with their past and present memory and also the reflection towards the future. Based on the religion sociology landscape in Malaysia, the interactions among religions are shadowed by negative perception among multi-ethnic and multi-religion population. Hence, this research is conducted to analysis the extent of perception level among the local people, who are multi ethnic and religion population regarding the inter-religion relation, mainly in Kedah and Selangor. This quantitative research involves 555 respondents that been chosen by the dominant religion factor; as Islam representing the Muslim community meanwhile Buddha, Hindu and Christian representing the non-Muslim community. The research analyses using descriptive statistical test which includes frequency, percentage, min and inference statistic tests like the Mann Whitney-U and Kruskal Wallis-H to explain the respondents’ background and in evaluating the perception level towards the research objective. The founding of research shows the perception level among the Muslim and non-Muslim communities is at a high level even though there is significant difference on Mann Whitney-U: (Z -8.264, p = .000).  Furthermore, there is a significant difference between the ethnic composition and states that been involved which records Kruskal Wallis-H: [x² (1, N=555) = 70.857, p=.000] dan [x² (1, N=555) = 26.229, p=.000] respectively. In short, perception plays an important role in determining the path which guarantees harmonious interaction between religions. This research was a part of The Level of Interaction Among Muslim and Non Muslim: A Case Study in State of Kedah and Selangor.