Don’t blame UM for terrorist lecturer, says head of staff union

Universiti Malaya cannot be blamed for its Islamic Studies lecturer’s involvement in militant activities, the head of the institution’s academic staff association said today.

Associate Professor Dr Azmi Sharom (pic) said the university had no control over the staff's ideological beliefs, unless there was evidence that students were being led astray.

"Short of actual active recruitment of students, the university cannot be blamed for this. One person's ideological belief is not something that the management can control," he told The Malaysian Insider.

Dr Mahmud Ahmad, a senior lecturer at the Department of Akidah and Islamic Thought, is wanted by police for his involvement in recruiting and sending Malaysian recruits to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (Isil) fighters in Syria.

The 36-year-old lecturer and four others are believed to have fled Malaysia and are in hiding in the southern Philippines.

A police source had previously told The Malaysian Insider that Mahmud was still attached to the university but had been missing for the past two months.

"Just because he worked in a university, it does not mean he cannot be influenced by some ideology," Azmi said.

"The university should be concerned and take action if there was proof that he had been recruiting students using his authority as a senior lecturer. But there is no evidence he had done that.”

Meanwhile, Mahmud's colleagues at the faculty revealed that his passion for jihadism and martyrdom was not a secret.

They told the New Straits Times that the alleged terrorist's behaviour began to change late last year and he began to preach to them that every Muslim man’s responsibility was to defend Islam at any cost.

“He was not discreet about his passion for jihadism and martyrdom.

“We would be chatting about the most mundane of topics and somehow he always managed to divert the conversation to these subjects," a lecturer at the faculty was quoted as saying.

Mahmud, who has three children, was close to the owner of a stationery shop at the university – Mohd Najib Husen – who is one of the other four wanted by police, a colleague told the NST.

Mahmud, who goes by the name Abu Handzalah, had spoken a lot about struggles, wars and linking them to jihad, another colleague told the daily.

“However, since late last year, he had become more focused on the concept of martyrdom and holy war. I don’t know how this came about.

“Now that the police have said he is a wanted man, everything makes sense,” the daily reported, citing another senior member of the faculty.

The report also claimed that one of the terror cells under watch by the authorities uses a journal the professor had penned as a guideline. The journal is titled "Iman Para Mujahidin", which means the Faith of Mujahidins.

Mahmud had also founded a religious school in Gombak called Open Tahfiz Centre, according to the report.

“It’s shocking to know Mahmud could be involved in militant activities. But we can say for sure that he never taught here," an ustaz who is running the centre told the NST, adding that Mahmud could not be contacted since January.

Meanwhile, Harian Metro reported that the mother of another terror suspect Muhammad Joraimee Awang Raimee, was heartbroken after finding out about her son's involvement in militant activities.

The woman, only identified as Siti, said that her 39-year-old son had quit his job with the Selayang Municipal Council and flew off to the Philippines.

"He studied at the al-Azhar University in Egypt for 10 years using my money. I told him to stop getting involved with these activities but he refused to listen," she told the Malay daily.

- TMI