Zakir sings praises about Mahathir during Kota Bharu ceramah

Preacher Zakir Naik sang praises about Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's leadership during a ceramah in Kota Bharu, Kelantan last night.

Speaking on "Islamophobia", Zakir commended Mahathir for his courage in standing up to superpowers such as the United States and the United Kingdom for their involvement in the Middle East conflict.

"Mahathir is the only Muslim leader who set up the (Kuala Lumpur) war crimes tribunal in 2011 which found that the US and UK had given false evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

"No other Muslim country had such courage except for Malaysia," he told some 30,000 people at the Sultan Muhammad IV Stadium in Kota Bharu.

Zakir, who is on the run from authorities in India on money laundering charges, said he was confident that former US president George W Bush and former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who presided over the invasion of Iraq in 2003, would be arrested if they set foot in Malaysia.

"He (Mahathir) is the only Muslim leader who had courage.

"(With the tribunal's decision), if Bush and Blair set foot in this country, they would be arrested.

"No Muslim country did this except for Malaysia, Alhamdulillah," he said as the crowd cheered.

The preacher had caused controversy due to his method of comparing Islam to other religions, which had sometimes caused unhappiness amongst non-Muslims.

Mahathir had said Zakir will not be extradited to India despite a request due to concerns that he would not get a fair trial there.

"We have a multiracial and multireligious population in Malaysia. We don't want anybody who comes up and expresses extreme views about race relations and about other religions. 

"So to that extent, we cannot have him, but on the other hand, it is difficult to send him anywhere else because many countries do not want to have him," Mahathir had said. - Mkini