Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainal Abidin has voiced support for Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar's remarks that Malaysia "is not a Taliban country".

Asri said this was not just a reference to the extremist group, but also to all who copy and practice an approach to Islam that is narrow and close-minded.

"The simple idea being related by the Johor sultan is that we must take a rational and moderate (wasatiyyah) approach to Islam.

"An attitude that is too exclusive that does not respect the rights of other races and religions will only lead to the downfall and destruction of Muslims just as the Taliban was," Asri said in a statement today.

Sultan Ibrahim had uttered the anti-Taliban remarks in response to a Muslim-only laundrette in Johor, which he ordered to be open to all.

Asri said there are views that if exclusion on religious grounds for laundrettes, public spaces, restaurants, and others are not curbed, it will spread to other issues as well.

"In the end, those that will be burdened are not others but the Muslims themselves," he added.

The mufti said as such, studies of Islam in Malaysia should be more progressive and moderate to shape an understanding of Islam that can deal with the realities faced not just in Malaysia, but internationally as well.

This he said would stop the spread of extremist ideologies in society, as well as raise Islam's international image.