‘Stand by truth and justice even if it is against you’
PUCHONG: Political leaders must stand by truth and justice instead of opting to be silent over unproven allegations, said Indian Muslim preacher Dr Zakir Naik.
“A leader should verify the truth behind the objections. If the Islamic organisation calls upon a speaker who abuses other religions and causing permanent disharmony, that programme shall not be held.”
“But when someone lays allegations, produce your proof if you are truthful. I know many times when I go in this country, the Indian non-Muslims here object 100 times more than the Indian non Muslims in my country. I don’t know why.”
“When anyone objects, what should the leader do? The leader shall not be scared that he would lose the elections. The leader should be for justice,” he said.
“The leader shall not get scared. If the Muslim preacher is actually spreading hatred he shall not be called. But don’t go out of context.”
He said this in response to a question in regards to the objections raised by Hindu organisations against the talk that was held in Universiti Utara Malaysia entitled Duty of a Muslim Professional, held last month.
The objections resulted in the talk being restricted to Muslims only.
Zakir based his argument on Surah An-Nisa verse 135 in which Allah tells human kind to stand by trust and justice even if it goes against themselves.
He also dared those who accused him of causing communal disharmony to prove their claim with at least one complete lecture of his.
“Show me one lecture where Dr Zakir Naik is causing communal disharmony. Simple. You know I have given more than 2,000 lectures. If you have seen one percent of my lectures, that would be 20 lectures, correct.
“Forget one percent, 0.2 percent. At least four lectures. Anyone who is objecting, first question you ask him is how many lectures of Dr Zakir Naik have you seen completely?”
He also explained how clippings of the lecture can be taken out of context by using a verse from the Quran.
“Out of context, Quran says do not pray. Do you agree with me or not? No? I am right. Quran says do not pray. Quran says in Surah An: Nisa Chapter 4 verse 43, do not pray when you are intoxicated.”
“When you read the context, Quran says do not pray when you are heavily intoxicated. If I quote half it will give a wrong message.
“So anyone saying Dr Zakir Naik speaking against other religion, you say give the proof. Get me one full lecture out of the 2000 I have given, not clippings of two minutes out of context. Only one, not even two.”
Dr Mahathir – an exemplary Muslim leader
He also elaborated on an exemplary Muslim leader – present Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who stands for truth and justice.
“I really appreaciate Tun Mahathir. He is the few Muslim politician who will fight for the right of a Muslim even if it goes against himself. I appreciate him.”
“As far as Muslim rights are concerned, even though the government has many non-Muslims, he is very just.”
“What we have to appreciate is he is the first person in the world who filed a case against George Bush and Tony Blair in the Kuala Lumpur War Tribunal. He said if this past president of US and past prime minister of UK stepped into Malaysia, we will arrest them.”
“Who has that guts? Dr Mahathir at that time was prime minister. So Allah brought him back. I don’t know about other politicians but I know for sure that you have to fight for what is truth.”
“He is one of the few Muslim politicians who have the guts. All other Muslims politicians don’t have the guts.”
“They will give decisions based on the benefits. If i go against this Muslim i would get more votes. Even if the muslim is correct they would put him into problem.”
He also took the media to task for being a propaganda tool that spread fake news.
“We have to realise that the biggest problem is the media which fakes news. I challenge any of the news media in any country that writes against me, how many lectures of mine have they seen? They are doing the propaganda.
“Even if they have seen the lecture, can they show it on television, I will pay them the money.”
