KUALA LUMPUR:Malaysian police yesterday questioned a controversial Indian Islamic preacherfor allegedly making insensitive remarks about race in the multiethnic country,as pressure mounts on authorities to kick him out. Zakir Naik, a radicaltelevision preacher who has called the 9/11 attacks an "inside job",left India in 2016 and moved to largely Muslim Malaysia, where he was grantedpermanent residency. He is wanted in India for inciting extremism and moneylaundering, and New Delhi last year asked Malaysia to extradite him, accordingto reports - a request that was rejected.
Calls are nowmounting for action after Naik said Hindus in Malaysia have "100times" more rights than India's Muslim minority, and suggested ChineseMalaysians should be expelled before he was. Several cabinet ministers havepublicly called for Naik to be kicked out, while even Prime Minister MahathirMohamad said he had crossed the line. His lawyer, Akberdin Abdul Kader, toldAFP that Naik was "being interviewed by the police" for a second dayyesterday, after first being hauled in last week. He is accused of making anintentional insult aimed at provoking a breach of the peace, according to statenews agency Bernama.
Mahathir saidSunday that Naik "can preach but he wasn't doing that... he was talkingabout sending the Chinese back to China, Indians back to India, that's for me apolitical move", according to the news agency. The government has in thepast appeared reluctant to move against Naik for fear it could upset someMuslims as well as provide ammunition to political opponents.
In 2010 Naik -who founded the Peace TV channel, which has a huge global following - wasbarred from entering Britain. In a July 2008 broadcast Naik suggested thatAl-Qaeda was not responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the UnitedStates. "Even a fool will know that this was an inside job," he saidin the video, claiming then-President George W Bush was behind the plot. - AFP