Zakir shouldn’t have touched on politics, but on sin and graft

COMMENT Ramesh Rajaratnam has written an excellent analysis of who Dr Zakir Naik is, and I would not try to outdo him for it.

At least Ramesh has taken the trouble to attend a lecture. For me, there are better things to do than to watch a man babbling away. To many, he appeared to be knowledgeable until someone exposed the number of mistakes that he made - at least 25 mistakes in just five minutes!

There are others who have already done in-depth research into what this man teaches; there is therefore, no reason why I would even bother to spend time on this man. By googling, one can have easy access to all the information that is already there.

It is because of his comments - or rather, his belittling of other religious beliefs - that rile some of us up that we make our comments on his preaching.

If this is the kind of Islam that Zakir preaches, it would simply not attract most non-Muslims, as clearly seen from the number of converts compared to the Christian evangelist Billy Graham, for example, where hundreds, if not, thousands of people would come forward in repentance of their sins.

Wrong of him to meddle in politics

In one of my earlier articles, I had said that if Zakir were truly sent by Allah, he would have touched on sin and corruption; instead, we see him meddling into the politics of this nation, when he commented about Umno and Pas coming together to form a unity government.

I can imagine if the late Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat were still alive, what would he have said about Zakir’s comments? His statements are provocative enough to get some response at least from me.

Either Zakir is being prodded by some parties to make such comments or he made it just to spite some people. Whatever it is, Zakir has no right to meddle into the politics of another country especially since he is not fully aware of the complications in the PAS-Umno relationship.

PAS, especially during the leadership of Nik Aziz, would not cooperate with Umno because of the latter’s level of corruption. To form a unity government with Umno would simply mean that Barisan Nasional (BN) as a whole would crumble, with both MIC and MCA pulling out of BN.

It would simply put PAS in a difficult position, especially when its major partner is involved in corruption scandals that hit the news around the world. It surprises me that someone as well read as Zakir is not aware of the mother of all scandals - the 1MDB.

Not a word on corruption and sin

I find it amusing that Zakir should say nothing about sin and corruption, and the consequences in the life hereafter.

Contrary to Billy Graham, for example, who spoke about man’s wickedness without fear or favour, there was not even a single word about sin and corruption spoken by Zakir.

Zakir did not even make an effort to warn those who were involved in a major scandal, despite the huge publicity worldwide; and instead he spoke about a unity government.

I am glad that he did, because if Umno and PAS were to pursue the path, the other BN coalition parties would be in a big conundrum; like Dr Mahathir Mohamad, they may even turn to Pakatan Harapan to help save Malaysia. Well done, Dr Zakir Naik! Well done!

This is the reason why I have said in my earlier article that Zakir is one who speaks words just to tickle his listeners and those who do not analyse what he said will find him too convincing.

This is not only my opinion as a non-Muslim; even a Muslim columnist, Shafiqah Othman Hamzah, has said the same in her column recently. And I want to end with one good conclusion made by Steve Oh, who wrote a compelling story about Zakir which is worth reading.

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STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. -Mkini