Clear the air over ‘gag order’ on Zakir Naik, govt told

 

In December 2021, Zakir Naik was reported to have denied receiving any message from the police saying that he was barred from giving talks in Malaysia. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: 

V Ganabatirau (PH-Klang) has urged the home ministry to clarify the status of a directive prohibiting controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik from giving public talks in Malaysia.

This comes following a report stating that Naik had given a speech at an event in Perlis last month.

“Does this mean the gag order (against the preacher) is no longer in effect?

“I hope the ministry can clarify this matter,” he said while debating the king’s speech in the Dewan Rakyat today.

According to The Scoop, Naik had given a speech before a crowd at the Perlis International Sunnah Convention 2025, held from Jan 24-26.

Naik had allegedly called on Malaysian Muslims to intensify their efforts to spread Islam to non-Muslims during a question-and-answer session.

He also reportedly claimed that Malaysians were not fully utilising laws that permit the propagation of Islam to non-Muslims.

He said Muslims would have to answer in the afterlife for their perceived lack of proselytising efforts.

In August 2019, it was reported that Naik was prevented from giving talks in any part of Malaysia.

The police were reported to have given the directive to the preacher in the interest of national security and to preserve racial harmony.

However, in December 2021, Naik disagreed, saying the police had never conveyed such a message to him. He also said he had checked with the chief secretary to the government then on this.

Naik also said then that he still gave talks to smaller groups during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In August last year, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he was not willing to consider extraditing Naik to India as long as the controversial preacher avoided causing trouble. - FMT