Who is Zakir Naik? Muslim preacher faces hate charges in India, but is welcome in Malaysia
Zakir Naik, a 52-year-old medical doctor, has aroused controversy with his puritan brand of Islam – recommending the death penalty for homosexuals and those who abandon Islam as their faith
When Zakir Naik emerged from a prominent Malaysian mosque last month fans swarmed about him, seeking selfies with the Indian Muslim televangelist whose hardline views have sparked a criminal investigation back in his home country.
Accompanied by a bodyguard, Naik was making a rare public appearance at the Putra Mosque in Malaysia’s administrative capital, where the prime minister and his cabinet members often worship.
Naik, who has been banned in the UK, has been given permanent residency in Malaysia, and embraced by top government officials.
Critics see Naik’s presence in Malaysia as another sign of top-level support for hardline Islam in a country with substantial minorities of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists, and which has long projected a moderate Islamic image.
Support for a more politicised Islam has grown in recent years under Prime Minister Najib Razak, especially after he lost the popular vote in the 2013 general election – the ruling coalition’s worst-ever electoral performance.
Since then, his ruling party has been trying to appease an increasingly conservative ethnic Malay-Muslim base and religion has become a battleground ahead of elections the prime minister has to call by mid-2018.