APRIL 13 — I am no fan of Zakir Naik’s. To me, he is crass in how he expresses his views, caring very little for the feelings of those whose religion he attacks. 

He is dishonest about his expertise as can be seen in the now-made viral video “Zakir Naik: 25 mistakes in 5 minutes” (even I know that Darwin went to the Galapagos Islands) and lastly, he hides behind simplistic generalisations to present his truth. 

One only needs to watch his analysis of the Christian Bible to understand that he fails to understand the range of Christian thinking with regards to their holy scriptures. 

He simply applies literalism, something which I suspect he would also do with the Quran, causing much embarrassment to himself.

At the time of writing, Zakir Naik has been banned from speaking about Hinduism and Islam in Malaysia. After the complaints made by Hindraf (as they did in 2012) with MIC Youth jumping on the bandwagon, no doubt trying to win support they have completely lost from the Indians, Zakir Naik’s comparative lecture has now been banned. The question now arises, was this banning a good move?

I, for one, don’t think so. 

I will, no doubt, earn the ire of my liberal comrades who despise Zakir Naik but bear with me while I explain. Banning Zakir Naik will not make his point of view go away nor his fandom die out. 

Rather it would make him even more popular than he is now. The Islamofascist fraternity is already crying for — irony of ironies — freedom of speech. 

The confused Islamofascists ISMA (confused because they also support racial supremacy) voiced this protest on their website. According to one of their writers, Hindraf is afraid that Malaysian Hindus would come closer to Islam after listening to Zakir Naik. With Naik’s level of analysis, I highly doubt it. 

In any case, rational Malaysians should rise to the occasion and be able to take on the likes of Zakir Naik. 

I would even suggest going in large groups to his lecture with pre-prepared questions. If all of us ask him questions, he won’t be able to run off. There are many things I would suggest asking the good doctor. 

Start with asking him about the “25 mistakes in 5 minutes” video. Has he apologised for that yet? After all, if he follows the way of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) who was called “Al-Ameen” (the trustworthy), then he should be able to be trusted or at least correct his mistakes.

Also ask him about the Quran. As a Salafee (as many have called him), it would be difficult for him to speak out against the literalism. Ask him if he believes God has two hands (Quran Chapter 5 Verse 64) or many hands (36/71) or even literally one hand (48/10). 

Naik may not believe this himself but he would certainly have a problem disclaiming this in front of other Salafees. 

One could also ask him about the state of Hadith literature (traditions attributed to the Prophet). Many of Naik’s attacks are on the contradictions of the Bible without mentioning the breadth of Christian scholarship with regards to such issues. 

These very same issues arise in Hadith literature as well. Hadith literature in the form we know today was ratified about 250 years after Prophet Muhammad, about the same time the contents of the Bible was finalised by the Nicean Council. 

As a Sunni Muslim, Naik is obliged to accept Hadith literature as revelation and so, he would need to explain its contradictions . If he employs logical gymnastics in order to do so, then one must ask him why he does not afford the same flexibility to our Christian brethren. 

Instead of calling for Zakir Naik’s ban, we should ask the government to allow the critics of Islam the same facility they afford him. After all, if Islamofascists don’t mind a virulent speaker like Naik, they should thus be fair and allow vocal critics of Islam as well. 

The market is saturated with them. There are whole councils of ex-Muslims as well as Western Islamophobes who are ever ready to spew their venom against Islam. Would ISMA support their freedom of expression as well? 

Zakir Naik is a controversial speaker but we need to tackle folks like this in a mature fashion. Only then can we undermine their rhetoric and expose them for the vile haters that they are.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.