KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — Indian Muslim preacher Dr Zakir Naik is prepared to accept Dr P. Ramasamy’s debate challenge on condition that the Penang Deputy Chief Minister II gets at least 20,000 people to attend his own ceramah first, organisers said.

Abu Shariz Sarajun Hoda, programme director for Dr Naik’s Tour to Malaysia 2016, also told Malay-language broadsheet Utusan Malaysia that he did not want Ramasamy to debate with the Mumbai-based televangelist just to be popular.

“If Ramasamy wants to debate with Dr Zakir, at the very least, he needs to be at the same level as his proteges first.

“If he wants to debate, Dr Zakir has six proteges in Malaysia. Maybe he can challenge them first and see if there are issues which can be brought forth and defended, only then can he think about debating our teacher,” Abu Shariz was quoted saying.

Ramasamy told Malay Mail Online Tuesday that he would not be able to attend Dr Naik’s talk in Kuala Lumpur this weekend, but offered to debate the Mumbai-based preacher on comparative religion instead.

The DAP deputy secretary-general recently labelled Dr Naik as “satan” in a now-deleted Facebook post. He later issued a statement apologising for using the word “satan” and stressed that he had not meant to insult Islam or Muslims.

The Facebook post led to his service centre being firebombed early Tuesday morning and also police reports being lodged against him.