PETALING JAYA: Malacca and Terengganu have joined the growing list of states to impose restrictions on Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik.
Today, the two states banned him from addressing any public rally. Five other states – Penang, Perlis, Kedah, Selangor and Johor – have imposed similar restrictions on him, while Sarawak has barred him from entering altogether.
This brings to eight the total number of states that have imposed either restrictions or a total ban on him.
Sabah has stated that it would impose similar restrictions or even ban Zakir from entering if there was evidence of him advocating for religious extremism.
In another development, those in the mamak restaurant business have distanced themselves from the preacher.
The Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Presma) said today it had nothing to do with claims that a group of mamak restaurants were donating money to Zakir.
The claim, that has gone viral, stated that an organisation called ‘Malaysian Mamak Restaurant Association (PRMM)’ had been contributing RM175,000 a month to support the Islamic televangelist.
The PRMM had allegedly been collecting RM10 each from its 17,351 member restaurants nationwide every month.
A check by theSun on the Registrar of Societies’ website found that no such association existed.
Presma, which represents 4,000 restaurant owners with close to 10,000 premises nationwide, said it was not involved in any effort to collect funds for Zakir. He declined to comment further.
Meanwhile, Zakir was questioned by police from 3.15pm to 7.30pm today. Federal police CID director Commissioner Datuk Huzir Mohamed said the questioning ceased at about 7.30pm to enable Zakir to perform his evening prayers and resumed soon after.
Zakir was accompanied to Bukit Aman by his lawyer Datuk Akhberdin Abd Kader.
It was the second time the Malaysian permanent resident was summoned for questioning by Bukit Aman.
On Friday he was called up at the same time and allowed to leave after being questioned about four hours.
Naik is being probed for intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace under Section 504 of the Penal Code.
Zakir has been courting controversy in the country in recent weeks over several of his lectures made in Kelantan recently.
Among other things, he had claimed the Malaysian Chinese were merely guests in the country, while also alleging that the Hindus here were more loyal to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi than to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
