PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia – Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Fridaythat Indian Islamic preacher allegedly wanted in his home country forterror-related activities and hate speech will not be sent back.
Zakir Naik, a television preacher, reportedly left India in 2016 andsubsequently moved to largely Muslim Malaysia, where he was grantedpermanent residency.
According to Indian media reports, New Delhi asked for him to be extraditedin January. The two countries have an extradition treaty.
“As long as he is not creating any problem, we will not deport him becausehe has been given permanent residency status,” Mahathir said at a newsconference in administrative capital Putrajaya outside Kuala Lumpur, whenasked about the reports.
The reports say India had asked for Naik to be sent back for allegedlyinciting youth to engage in terror activities via his hate speeches.
Naik, 52, has described the media reports as “totally baseless and false”,adding that he has no plans to return to India until he felt “safe fromunfair prosecution”.
In 2010 Naik was reportedly barred from entering Britain after the HomeSecretary cited “numerous comments” which showed his “unacceptablebehaviour”.
In a July 2008 TV broadcast Naik suggested that Al-Qaeda was notresponsible for flying hijacked airliners into New York’s World TradeCenter on September 11, 2001, killing almost 3,000 people.
Neither Indian nor Malay officials have confirmed the extradition requestor the existence of any charges again Naik.