Why is Malay right wing group Perkasa only speaking up now about criticism against controversial Muslim preacher Zakir Naik from a local interfaith group which has been vocally against the preacher since 2012.
This is the question from Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) deputy president RS Mohan Shan.
"Why didn't Perkasa open their mouth in 2012 and (earlier this year) when we voiced out about this (Zakir) also?" he asked when contacted by Malaysiakini.
He was responding to Perkasa's comment yesterday, where they had blasted Mohan for saying Zakir had advocated terrorism to youths and defended the preacher as "moderate".
Perkasa will also be lodging a police report later today against MCCBCHST.
"They can go ahead and lodge the police report, I'm not going to take back my statement. What I said is not a new thing, I've been saying it since 2012 (when Zakir first came to Malaysia)," Mohan (photo) said.
Back in 2012, when Zakir came to Malaysia, MCCBCHST had already issued a statement that they do not want him in the country, he added.
He also clarified his earlier statement where he said Zakir was "feeding terrorism speech into Islam to all the youngsters in the world".
As a religious leader, Mohan said he has all the right to give notice to the country's leaders to watch out and be more careful, especially with the current climate of increasing Islamic State attacks throughout the world, including the first confirmed IS-linked attack in Malaysia last month.
Zakir, he said, has a "different motive" in bringing out Islamic fanaticism, which will indirectly lead to terrorism.
"We want harmony in this country, we don't want this kind of fanaticism and talking bad about other religions and all these things.
"We are only giving out view. We didn't say all his followers are terrorists, but in all his speeches, we can see clearly, he takes to the fanaticism of Islam and through that, it leads to terrorism," Mohan explained.
It was reported that two of the terrorists involved in the killing of 20 hostages in Dhaka, Bangladesh, were social media followers of Zakir, who is based in Mumbai, India.
Zakir on Thursday had denied that his speeches promote terrorism, and welcomed investigations against him. - Mkini
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