PUTRAJAYA: Controversial preacher Dr Zakir Naik is allowed to attend a prayer session in Malacca this Saturday, but he cannot give any speeches, Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today.
Muhyiddin reiterated what state police chief Datuk Raja Sharom Raja Abdullah said yesterday that the prayer session was approved after the organiser gave his assurance that Zakir would not deliver any speeches or sermons.
“I have been informed by the state police chief that he is there to participate in solat and prayer rituals and not addressing any congregation there. He cannot give any speeches.
“If he wants to pray, no one can stop him. That’s why he’s allowed to attend the event,” Muhyiddin said after his ministry’s monthly gathering in Putrajaya this morning.
The event is called Malam Bersama Bersatu Bersama Dr Zakir Naik (A night with Bersatu and Dr Zakir Naik) and will be held this Saturday between 6.30pm and 9.30pm at the Cina Krubong mosque in Malacca.
Invitations of the event show Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) supreme council member Datuk Mohd Rafiq Naizamohideen alongside Zakir for the communal prayer session.
This will be Zakir’s first public appearance since a police ban on him from speaking at any public platform, until investigations into his remarks which allegedly offended Malaysian Hindus and Chinese are completed.
Malacca is one of the states that have barred the Indian fugitive from public speaking but Rafiq said the event is a private programme by the mosque he chairs and not a state government event.
At a ceramah in Kota Baru, Kelantan, early last month, Zakir allegedly offended Hindus by implying they were more loyal to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as Chinese when he implied that the latter were “guests” in Malaysia.
Zakir is wanted by India to face money laundering and terror-related charges.
