Zakir’s public speeches banned, again questioned in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 20 (IANS) Controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, living in Malaysia for the past three years after fleeing India, has been barred from delivering public talks in every state in Malaysia, even as he faced a second round of questioning by police for his provocative remarks.

Naik, who was granted permanent residency in Malaysia after he left India on being charged with giving inflammatory speeches, has been barred from delivering public talks in every state in Malaysia by the police in the interest of national security.

Royal Malaysia Police corporate communications head Senior Asst Comm Datuk Asmawati Ahmad confirmed this, the star.com reported.

Naik, 54, was questioned by the police for 10 hours during a second round of questioning for making racial remarks.

He was seen leaving the Bukit Aman police headquarters in a Toyota Innova, the Post reported.

CID Director Huzir Mohamed told the Jakarta Post that Naik was being probed under Section 504 of the Penal Code for intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace.

Naik was earlier barred by seven states - Melaka, Johor, Selangor, Penang, Kedah, Perlis and Sarawak - from speaking in public after his incendiary racial remarks.

Malaysia's former police chief Rahim Noor has urged the government to rescind his Permanent Residency (PR) status and return him to India.

"Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had commented that the government will consider rescinding his PR status if it is proven that he has committed criminal offences," Noor was quoted as saying.

Naik has been slammed for making racial comments during an August 3 talk. He had said that Hindus in Malaysia get "100 times more rights" than the Muslim minority gets in India, and yet they support the "Prime Minister of India and not the Prime Minister of Malaysia".

Despite facing calls for deportation by multiple parties, Naik called on the Malaysian Chinese to "go back first" as they were the "old guests" of the country.

Malaysia's impatience with Naik also comes days after Malaysian Minister P. Waytha Moorthy, Special envoy of Prime Minister Mahathir, visited India and met Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.