PETALING JAYA: Inflammatory preacher Zakir Naik must be booted out of the country, DAP ministers Gobind Singh Deo and M Kula Segaran have told Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind and Human Resource Minister Kula said they explained their opposition to the presence of Zakir in the country to Dr Mahathir at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday (Aug 14).
“We have raised the issue with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet this morning, over Zakir’s presence in Malaysia and the recent event held by him in Kota Baru over the weekend and other statements he has made which have caused controversy.
“We expressed our position that action must be taken and Zakir should no longer be allowed to remain in Malaysia.
“The Prime Minister has taken note of our concerns. We leave it to him to consider the position and to decide soonest possible what will be done to deal with the problem, ” said the two ministers.
Gobind and Kula Segaran are the MPs for Puchong and Ipoh Barat, respectively.
Zakir, from India but who is a permanent resident here, has stirred controversy in Malaysia with his open evangelism criticising non-Muslims.
He is wanted in India over corruption charges but Malaysia has declined India’s extradition requests, with certain parties alleging that the charges were trumped up.
Dr Mahathir has since admitted that Malaysia was in a Catch-22 situation as Zakir was “an unwelcome guest Malaysia can’t send away”.
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