Malaysian authorities set to question Zakir Naik for racially charged comments

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 16: Authorities in Malaysia are set to summon controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik after he made a sensitive comment. Several ministers in Malaysia have now been demanding the expulsion of Naik after he said that Hindus in Malaysia have 100 times more rights than the Muslim majority India.

Naik is under the scanner of the Indian agencies for changes ranging from radicalisation to money laundering.

The police will question Naik and several others for making racially charged statements and for spreading false news, Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said. The enforcement agencies under my ministry will not hesitate to take legal action against anyone who attempts to threaten public harmony and peace, he also said.

Amidst a series of setbacks in the Zakir Naik case, the National Investigation Agency is planning to move against the controversial Islamic preacher afresh.

This comes in the wake of the Interpol refusing to issue a Red Corner Notice against Naik, who is currently in Malaysia. An NIA source tells OneIndia that they are studying the points raised by the Interpol and would take corrective measures. We will seek an RCN against him once these issues are sorted out, the source also said.

The NIA had in fact managed to get an RCN issued against him in 2016, but the same was cancelled within two months as the agency had failed to file a chargesheet and share the report with the Interpol.

The NIA was unsuccessful another time as it was unable to substantiate the charges linking Naik with terror as per the requirements of the Interpol. The Interpol National Central Bureaus have been told to update their national databases so that there will no longer be a reference to Naik and the charges slapped by the NIA.