Islamic preacher denies racism in video denouncing Chinese, Indians as shirkers

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 — An Islamic preacher today shot back at critics accusing him of racism in a six-year old video in which he berated the Chinese and Indian community for partying instead defending the country, saying the lecture was on defending Malay rights and the Malay rulers.

Datuk Kazim Elias added that they only focused on the portion of the video that contained the controversial remarks, and disregarded the larger theme of the lecture that was being recorded.

“The accuser did not understand what I was talking about or he only understood a minute or two, he did not watch before or after those two minutes,” the preacher popularly known as Ustaz Kazim was reported as saying by national news agency Bernama.

“i don’t want to fight or argue… he (my accuser) is making wild accusations. This is an old issue, six years ago and intentionally brought up again,” he added.

Kazim insisted that he was not a politician or involved with any political party, and was being attacked for speaking about religion.

In the video just over an hour-long, Kazim berated Malaysia’s ethnic Chinese and Indians for having fun drinking and dancing in clubs while the Malays worked hard for the country as soldiers, police officers, fire-fighters, and cleaners.

“Now who is the master, who is the slave? … Our race is guarding the jungles. Where are the Chinese? Are there Hindus? How many Hindus are soldiers? Many are robbers. Freely going to Giant, nightclubs, wearing sexy clothes, hanging out in Tesco,” he added, naming two hypermarkets.

In comparison, Kazim suggested that the Malays might be the ones who are “slaves” now, as they have to work hard serving non-Malays who are living carefreely.

The remark made was part of an over hour-long lecture on the topic of the Malay rulers, which is also available in his collection of lectures sold nationwide.

The video has since earned the ire of at least one ethnic Chinese group in Tumpat, Kelantan that lodged a police report against the video this week after receiving snippets of it through text messaging app WhatsApp.