THE Gerakan Pembela Ummah (Ummah) rally today heard calls to defend controversial preacher Zakir Naik from deportation back to India, where he is facing money-laundering charges.
PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man told protesters that they must prevent Putrajaya from deporting the preacher, whom India also accused of inciting followers to commit acts of terrorism.
“Please defend Zakir Naik. We cannot allow the government to extradite him back to India. We have to defend him against slander,” Tuan Ibrahim said in a speech at the rally outside the Sogo shopping complex.
An online petition for Putrajaya to deport Zakir was started about two weeks ago by a London-based activist after suicide attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.
Tuan Ibrahim said the opposition to Zakir was due to the seeping of the “liberal agenda” into religious institutions.
“This gathering shows that Muslims are aware that the liberal agenda is threatening religious institutions.”
Though wanted in India and barred from other countries such as Canada and Britain over his alleged extremist ideology, Zakir has been living in Malaysia where he was granted permanent residency in 2012.
Despite Tuan Ibrahim’s calls to prevent the preacher from being extradited, however, Putrajaya has in fact taken a friendly approach towards Zakir, with Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa calling him “an inspiration”.
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also said previously that Zakir would be allowed to stay in Malaysia as long as he did not cause trouble.
Yesterday, The Hindu news portal reported that India had charged Zakir with money-laundering over activities surrounding his Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation.
THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
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