KUALA LUMPUR — Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today said Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik is free to preach and talk about Islam, but not on racial politics that can stir up and harm the Malaysian well-being.
“We don’t want to stop him from talking about religion and the right things, go ahead… but it’s quite clear that he wants to participate in racial politics in Malaysia. In the first place, I don’t know who gave him the Permanent Resident (PR) status but as a permanent resident, he cannot participate in politics. He can preach but he wasn’t doing that…. he was talking about sending the Chinese back to China, Indian back to India, that’s for me a political move,” he told reporters at the 62nd International Statistical Institute (ISI) World Statistics Congress at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here today.
The premier said it has been a culture of the people in this country to be very careful about how they say things that are sensitive to other communities.
“I never say that kind of thing…I never ask the Chinese to go back, but he (Zakir) comes here and asks them to go back (to China).
He said it was really a bad move by Zakir to stir up racial feeling, thus because of that, the police would have to investigate him.
“So whatever action that we take will be in accordance with the law…this government respects the rule of law,” he said.
— BERNAMA
