KUALA LUMPUR, April 11 — Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar today urged organisers of a controversial lecture series comparing Hinduism and Islam to cancel the event.

The Inspector-General of Police said there was no benefit from organising such a talk, based on past experience.

“In talks as such, you will tend to belittle one religion from another (sic) so I therefore advise the organisers to call off the next lecture series in Malacca,” he said during a news conference.

Several MIC and Indian-based groups yesterday lodged police reports over the lecture series that is scheduled to be held at Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (Utem) on April 17.

According to MIC Youth leader C. Sivarraajh, the police reports were lodged to prevent controversial Muslim preacher Dr Zakir Naik from speaking in Malaysia.

He reportedly said that Zakir Naik was known for his demeaning tactics to undermine other religions, which could spark unrest among the public.

Last Friday, Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) demanded Putrajaya ban the preacher from entering Malaysia to start a series of lectures at Terengganu, calling Naik a “virus” to the country’s multi-cultural communities.

Naik, who received the government’s Tokoh Maal Hijrah award in 2013, previously angered the Hindu community here by allegedly insulting their deities along with the vegetarian practices of the faith.

The Islamic Research Foundation president had also been denied entry to Canada and United Kingdom in 2012 after he reportedly expressed his support of terrorist group Al-Qaeda.