Zakir Naik and Malay-Muslim unity

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Mr. Zakir Naik is arguably way more famous now that he is hiding in plain sight in Putrajaya from Indian law enforcement, than he ever was as an evangelist preacher. The Islamic supremacist is now the subject of intense interest to the Non-Muslims in Malaysia because of the peculiar fascination he seems to excite in the local powers that be.

While the shift from Barisan Nasional (BN) to Pakatan Harapan (PH) has been nothing short of seismic with wholesale changes in personnel and policies underway, on the subject of Mr. Naik’s presence in the country both coalition’s leadership is curiously of one mind-that he should stay here.

When Mr. Naik is pretty much a pariah in many parts of the world from Bangladesh to Canada, what makes him so irresistible here that the very day after India files a formal extradition request for his deportation, not only does Dr. Mahathir summarily reject the request, he actually meets with Mr. Naik?

The answer probably lies in Mr. Naik’s ability to unapologetically and continually bring up contrasts between Islam and other religions, and then try and prove the supremacy of Islam. Therefore, depending on who you ask, he is either a villain accused of money laundering and incitement to terrorism through his televangelism and business dealings, or a hero of the global Islamic community evidenced by his being bestowed the King Faisal International Prize for service to Islam and the Ma’al Hijrah Distinguished Personality award.

From the perspective of all the Malay Muslim political leadership in this case then, religion easily trumps nationality. To deliver an authentic religious hero being mercilessly persecuted by an openly Hindu government back to his country would be a travesty of justice to a large number of Malay Muslims in Malaysia.

The previous government recognized this early and conferred him with Permanent Residence status in a straightforward attempt to burnish its Islamic credentials ahead of the last elections. After Dr. Mahathir’s snub to the Indian government, PAS also immediately congratulated him for not deporting Mr. Naik.

But despite his quick action, the situation for Dr. Mahathir is considerably trickier for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the obvious hypocrisy of the new government going around stressing the rule of law to get the likes of Jamal Yunos and Jho Low extradited from other countries for local offences while ignoring an identical request from a friendly country with which it has an extradition treaty.

For a government that is touting its reformist credentials, the rule of law and the independence of institutions of governance at every opportunity, this is not a good look.  Even if the government thinks that the extradition request is without merit, it should clearly state the reasons why instead of the PM appearing to simply dismiss the request out of hand.

Secondly, and much more importantly is how close this gets to ignoring the promised rejection of the politics of race and religion by PH. Just as strident as his Muslim supporters, are his detractors from minority communities who see him as a divisive figure sowing the seeds of distrust and disharmony with his rhetoric and posing a real danger to the hard-won peace between the various communities that make up Malaysia.

If after all these years of DAP blasting MIC and MCA over their inability to take on UMNO over its Ketuanan Melayu rhetoric has led to this day when not a single cabinet minister from any of the component parties has uttered a word opposing Dr. Mahathir’s action, how is this coalition any different from the previous one? What happened to Pillar five in the Pakatan Harapan manifesto that promises to "create a Malaysia that is inclusive, moderate and respected globally".

Even if it is politically infeasible to deport him, the least PH can do is to demonstrate that it follows due process before it makes such major decisions.

Or is Dr. Mahathir supreme leader again with everybody else just making up the numbers?