Responding to a report in FMT which highlighted the grammar and spelling errors in the paper, Muhammad Atiullah Othman of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris said in a Facebook post that he had sent the research paper to a language centre to have the language checked.
“As for the typo in the name, I sent an email to the publisher about the typo. The typo is only in my name,” he said.
In the research paper titled “Political Islam in Islamism and Post-Islamism: A Study on Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF)” published by the International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Atiullah’s name was spelt as Muhammad Atiullah Ohtman.
Atiullah, a PAS member, had written the paper together with two other senior lecturers from the university’s human sciences department, Zuraini Jamil and Siti Noranizahafizah Boyman.
When contacted by FMT, Farouk, who teaches medicine at Monash University Malaysia, had said he welcomed critiques on his views but questioned the paper’s academic quality as well as the credibility of the online journal which published it.
He warned that it could be among hundreds of fake academic journals.
The journal is published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (HRMars), which on its website says it wants to promote academics “and their valuable contributions by providing them an electronic platform where they can publish their researches and contributions in order to have the larger readership”.
But a list of “questionable scholarly publishers” compiled by US-based librarian Jeffrey Beall also includes HRMars.
“Avoid submitting your manuscript to these publishers,” says a warning at the beginning of the list.
Atiullah, however, denied that it was a fake academic journal.
“HMRIS (sic) is not a fake journal. I know its publisher,” he said in his Facebook post.
Atiullah said the methodology used was checked by the “RMIC section”. It is believed that he was referring to the university’s Research Management and Innovation Centre.
“All the facts are in my hand. There is no reference to fake journals,” he said.
Atiullah said the research had also been shown to the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais), adding that several panel members of the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) were also aware of it.
Among others, the 19-page essay claims that IRF with its liberal arguments is calling for a shift from Islamism to “post-Islamism” with “liberalist” and “secularist” values, words frequently repeated by Muslim bureaucrats in Malaysia against their critics.
“IRF was intentionally to mislead secularism and liberalism in post-Islamism by making a paradigm shift to develop understanding secularism and liberalism. Therefore, IRF activities in promoting liberalism, secularism and West values are well known by religious authorities such as JAKIM,” runs a concluding line in the paper. FMT has not edited the sentence.
Some other lines from the paper sighted by FMT run as follows: “While the idea of post-Islamism is boosted several inquiries, Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) took advantage in gauging Islamism political thought with critics on Islamism principles and additionally recommends post-Islamism approach.”
Another extract from the research paper reads: “While the discussion about Islamism and post-Islamism is still in critical discussion amongst scholars, Muslims researchers such as Husnul Amin, Ihsan Yilmaz and Ahmad Farouk Musa has submitted a proposal for post-Islamism with more secular and more liberal.”
Atiullah concluded his Facebook post by saying: “I defend the research and the journal.”
Typos, bad English in ‘research paper’ by senior lecturers irk IRF chief