Attorney General should act on reports
LET’S be real and not keep ourselves in the dark on the Dr Zakir Naik issue. It’s not about bowing to pressure to deport him.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is wrong to defend Dr Zakir on grounds that he has “not created any trouble”. Dr Mahathir probably wants to be politically correct and not offend some people. But that’s doing a disservice to race relations in our multiracial and multireligious country.
“Trouble” takes many forms. The Red Shirt Jamal type of rabble rousing is the simplest and most obvious. This is very low level of trouble making.
At the other end is trouble created by people using higher order thinking skills. This is the work of intelligent people like Dr Zakir, a doctor who knows the power of psychology on people’s minds.
Is it because he has not led mobs on the streets that he is said not to have caused any problem or trouble?
Please don’t turn a blind eye to Chapter XV of the Penal Code: “Offences relating to religion”. Dr Zakir’s so-called lectures on “comparative religion” are full of words that run foul of this chapter. By his “comparison” of religions and conclusion that Islam is the only true religion, and that the others are fakes, he is without doubt “Causing etc., disharmony, disunity, or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will, or prejudicing, etc, the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds of religion”.
I would think that he himself is a fake because he does not respect the Prophet’s teaching “to you yours and to me mine”. Very creatively, he declares that every child born is born a Muslim but his/her parents turn him/her into non-Muslims.
He goes on mischievously to say that he is not asking people to “convert” to Islam, but only to repent and “revert” to Islam, the religion of their birth!
In this regard, Singapore was very quick to nip such racism in the bud when it charged two preachers of the same ilk as Dr Zakir, fined them and deported them before they could spread the seeds of disharmony.
Please don’t wait for the seeds of disharmony that people like Dr Zakir sow to bear fruit before acting.
Words spoken by “powerful” preachers like Dr Zakir can have strong impact on the simple folk who would be prepared to do anything to “defend” their religion if it is being portrayed as under attack.
The mere presence of Dr Zakir in the country and the fact that the government allows him to stay are moral support and encouragement for local racists and bigots.
Regardless of what Dr Mahathir says, the Attorney General should act on the police reports that have been made against Dr Zakir and tell Malaysians whether he committed any offence(s) under Chapter XV of the Penal Code.
The AG must decide whether Dr Zakir breached our laws on racial harmony.