MALAYSIAN activist Farouk A. Peru has started a petition urging Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to act on fundamentalist Muslim preachers and evict Indian preacher Zakir Naik from the country.
The London-based Islamologist’s petition was posted on change.org this morning and comes two days after attacks on churches and hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka, which left more than 300 people dead.
Farouk called on Dr Mahathir to “stop fundamentalist preachers before it is too late”, singling out Zakir and a local preacher Firdaus Wong.
In his petition, Farouk reminded Dr Mahathir of his decision to allow Zakir to remain in Malaysia when the man was wanted by his home country India for allegedly inciting communal disharmony and other unlawful activities.
Zakir became a subject of investigations in India and Bangladesh after two suspects in a terror attack that left 22 dead in Dhaka in July 2016, claimed that they were inspired by his “radical preaching”.
Zakir had always maintained his innocence, denying claims that he had ever promoted terror in the name of Islam or otherwise.
He has been giving talks extensively in the country.
Two week ago, he had a dialogue with undergraduates at Universiti Utara Malaysia in Kedah.
Farouk said Zakir practised aggressive religious preaching, and Firdaus, who had derogatorily called non-Muslims “belum Islam” (not yet Muslim) was the former’s admirer.
“This very insulting moniker totally devalues the religious experience of our fellow Malaysians and acts if it is inevitable that they would eventually convert to Islam.
“When Malaysians get indignant and try to defend their faith, Firdaus plays victim and acts as if he is under attack. This is a very worrying trend,” he said.
Farouk said with Islamofascism, an oppressive form of Islam, having crept into mainstream thinking, poisoning the minds of many Muslims through “Islamisation” since the 80s, Malaysia was in a “dire situation”.
He said it was “only a matter of time before we fall to the level of nations like Pakistan or Iraq or, given what happened only last Sunday, Sri Lanka”.
Several churches and hotels in the South Asian island nation were bombed on Easter Sunday, killing more than 320 people so far. The Sri Lankan government blamed a homegrown Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath for the attacks.
The Guardian reported today that terror group IS had just claimed the suicide attacks in Sri Lanka. Through its Amaq news agency, IS claimed the bombings were the work of “fighters of the Islamic State” but did not provide any evidence to support the claim.
“When that happens, all that we have worked for will be irretrievably lost.
“The rhetoric of the terrorist is the same exclusivist mindset as our own preachers.
“The only difference is, our preachers do not preach violence. We don’t know about their followers. The Dhaka terrorists were allegedly influenced by Zakir,” Farouk said.
He told the prime minister that preachers like Firdaus must be stopped, and Zakir must be removed from Malaysia “for the sake of God and Islam, which tells us to be compassionate and just”.
“We need to do it for the sake of the nation and for humanity, which can never attain happiness if a section of it is oppressed.
“We therefore ask your intervention.”
In his petition, he also pointed out that the different religions do not have a level playing field in the country, as only Muslims can preach their faith to others and demean the beliefs of others.
“If we had a level playing field where all religions can be criticised fairly and anyone is free to convert to any religion, then this preaching would be acceptable.
“However, given the current conditions, preaching would only disrupt our harmony.”
The petition received more than 710 signatures in its first eight hours on the website.
Brandon Lee said he signed the petition because all religions preached peace and tolerance, and no religion should condemn another.
Mary Kam said Malaysia has to start to heal the “wounded nation” at some point, and that is by sending Zakir back to India, where he belongs.
She said Malaysia should also put away people who stir up disharmony.
Ann Zolkepeli said Malaysia does not need another “extremist mind” here.
“We don’t want extremists in the form of ‘religious’ people endangering our minds with nonsensical preaching,” Najat Marzuki said.
Jude Hazzim wrote: “I am signing as we are (at risk) of becoming another Afghanistan. Everything harbours around race and religion. Not what is right or wrong. It’s sad that Malaysia has come to this dire state of affairs.”
Elizabeth Jasmin Kaur said all citizens in Malaysia should be allowed to practise their respective faiths freely and without being forced.
“You should ban extreme Islamist like Zakir as he is a danger to our nation, unless you condone his actions and care less about Malaysians irrespective of race, colour or religion,” she said. – April 23, 2019.
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