Islamic preacher Zakir Naik has filed a counterclaim against former Penang deputy chief minister P Ramasamy over three allegedly defamatory statements.
The counterclaim followed on the heels of Ramasamy’s own defamation suit against Zakir, filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Dec 3 last year.
The two personalities have clashed in court before, with the High Court in November last year ordering Ramasamy to pay RM1.52 million in damages and cost for purportedly defaming Zakir.
Ramasamy’s current defamation suit against Zakir is over an allegation that the former is the “biggest enemy of Islam”.
According to the counterclaim sighted by Malaysiakini, Zakir claimed that Ramasamy had defamed him with three statements allegedly issued in 2019.
The three statements in question are different from that of the RM1.52 million High Court case mentioned above.
Compensation, public apology
One statement is in relation to an online news article dated Aug 12 that year titled “Naik should stop his diabolical game of hatred against non-Muslims in M’sia”.
The other two statements were allegedly made on Ramasamy’s Facebook account on Aug 20 and 21 that same year.
Zakir claimed that the online article alleged that he maliciously spread hatred against non-Muslims in Malaysia via his public speeches.
Zakir claimed the Facebook posts also claimed that he was a person who would not attend court proceedings as he was an allegedly wanted man in India, and that he purportedly made an insincere apology over his religious ceramah at Kota Bharu, Kelantan.
The preacher is seeking multiple reliefs against Ramasamy, among them unspecified general, compensatory, aggravated, and exemplary damages.
Zakir is seeking a court order to compel the former DAP leader to publish an apology to be carried on the latter’s FB account as well as in eight news portals and newspapers.
He also seeks an injunction to compel Ramasamy to take down the three allegedly defamatory statements as well as to prevent the latter from further repeating the said statements.
‘No clean hands’
Meanwhile in his statement of defence filed at the same time yesterday against Ramasamy’s suit, Zakir contended that the Malaysian civil court has no jurisdiction to hear the defamation action as the preacher’s speech was made in Nigeria on Nov 2 last year.
Zakir claimed he was there on the invitation of Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III of Nigeria, to give a ceramah at an event titled “Al-Quran: The Global Necessity” at Sokoto, Nigeria.
Zakir claimed that his speech at the Nigeria tour received extraordinarily positive reception from both Muslims and non-Muslims.
He said is a renowned Islamic preacher who has become a target for enemies who hate Islam.
Over Ramasamy’s claim that Zakir defamed the former with the phrase ‘biggest enemy of Islam’, the preacher contended that the phrase does not carry any defamatory sting against the former Penang deputy chief minister.
Zakir claimed this is because Ramasamy’s reputation is already tainted, as seen by the Kuala Lumpur High Court in November last year allowing the preacher’s defamation suit against the former DAP politician.
“Therefore, this action is not an action where the plaintiff ‘comes with clean hands’,” Zakir contended over Ramasamy’s defamation suit against the preacher. - Mkini
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