On Sunday, the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that Zakir Naik’s Permanent Resident (PR) status could be revoked if the country’s investigatinos show that he was causing harm to the country’s well-being.
Speaking at the 2019 World Statistics Congress, PM Mohamad responded to a question on his stand on calls for Naik to be deported back to Saudi Arabia following controversial statements. The PM said, “He has permanent resident status. We can take away that permanent resident status if he does something that is detrimental to the well-being of this nation. At this moment, the police are investigating whether he is doing that or not. Of course, he is doing that, it may be necessary for us to take away his permanent resident status and in that case, of course, we may need to take action to prevent him from making such speeches, provocative speeches, which tend to pit the different races against each other.”
In response to a question asking whether Naik should be made to issue a public apology for having riled up Malaysians, the PM responded, “I don’t know about demanding for public apology. I don’t think it is going to assuage the anger of many people. At this moment, we leave it to the police to investigate on the seriousness of the statements that he has made.”
Naik is being investigated by Malaysia's federal police for racially charged comments he made at a lecture in Kota Baru, Kelantan, where he reportedly claimed, “Indian-Malaysians were more loyal to the Narendra Modi government of India than the Mahathir administration.”
Spurring controversy, Naik responded to calls for his deportation by saying that people were calling him a guest, but that before him, the Chinese were the guests. He added that they were not born there, and that if they wanted the new guest [him] to leave, they should ask the old guests to go back first.
Naik faces charges of money laundering in India, from where the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has made repeated requests to Interpol and Malaysian authorities to detain the controversial preacher.
Earlier, in June, PM Mohamad responded to a question over Naik’s possible extradition to Indiaby asking “Before we accept an extradition request [for Zakir from India], we need to know what will happen to the person who is to be extradited.” The PM had met with Naik in June of 2018.
