YOURSAY | ‘Abu Bakar Bashir, a radical Islamist from Indonesia, was given sanctuary by the gov’t earlier.’

Make a stand on Zakir who is wanted in India, DPM told

David Dass: Some people in this country have got themselves in a bind. They have chosen as their 'guru' an Indian preacher called Zakir Naik.

This man speaks to cheering crowds of Muslims demonstrating his knowledge of 'comparative religion' and appears to be citing verses and extracts from various holy books and also quoting from various sources, all to bolster his arguments that Islam is the only true religion and all other religions false religions.

The fact that Muslims believe that Islam is the only true religion is not a problem as all adherents of all religions believe that to be true of each of their religions. But stating untrue opinions or interpretations and sources of other faiths is wrong.

Apologists from other religions have analysed many of his speeches and exposed the flaws in his logic and the inaccuracies or untruths in his sources.

There was a time when we knew exactly who and what we were. Now foreign influences shape our minds and thoughts. India, for whatever reason, allowed Zakir Naik free rein. Perhaps they were giving life to freedom of expression.

The cynic in me says that they needed people like Zakir Naik to galvanise the Hindu's feelings. And he did. The Hindu right wing are in ascendant. Zakir Naik, emboldened by the freedom he had to peddle his wares, travelled overseas.

To Muslim-only audiences, he says things which would alarm non-Muslims and to non-Muslim majority countries, he portrayed a more liberal and accommodating view.

This is the age of recording devices and YouTube. It was not long before his double speak was exposed.

His speeches encourage or inspire terrorism, say the Bangladeshis and the Indians. India says that he is engaged in money-laundering activities and India wants him back to answer questions. What should we do?

So far, we have said that he has committed no crime in the country and have given him PR (permanent resident) status.

Hplooi: Back in the 80s, we not only gave sanctuary to the Sulu insurgency, but also support (and by one report) succour them. The Abu Sayyaf is a direct result of that policy.

Also in around 1982 thereof, Abu Bakar Bashir, a radical Islamist who was jailed by the Suharto government, was given sanctuary by the Malaysian government. Bashir was a radical who started Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

The Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM) is a direct ideological offspring of JI. Bashir and another radical, Hambali (who was responsible for the Bali bombings), lived for years (in Kampong Sg Manggis, Banting) with PR status.

Malaysia is also a welcomed R&R (rest and recreation) for international extremists and Kuala Lumpur was ostensibly a venue for a summit of jihadists (hosted by Yazid Sufaat, a Malaysian). The 911 attack was one of the agenda discussed.

It is therefore no surprise that Malaysia is a sort of centre for Islamic radicalisation in Southeast Asia. The direct ideological offspring of all these include Mohd Lofti Ariffin (a PAS member who died in Syria), To date, Lofti is still revered by the young students of the madrassah he founded.

This Pew report is troubling: 11% Malaysians are IS sympathisers (I assume Pew surveyed all Malaysians). Since Muslims are about 60%, IS sympathisers would therefore be higher amongst Malaysian Muslims. In comparison IS sympathisers in Indonesia is only about 4%.

I have not even begun on the troubling decades long succour given by the Malaysian government to the Pattani insurgency in southern Thailand.

Minister sees no need to send students overseas

Guna Otak: I have to read and re-read the statement to see if it is printed correctly - five universities in Malaysia are in the top 1 percent in the world. My, in my 99 years in Malaysia, I have never known this "fact".

The government must have been very modest and keeping quiet all the time, even letting the Times Higher Education World University Ranking and the QS World University Ranking to wrongly ranked these five universities.

No wonder, the high-quality local graduates are unemployed as they cannot find any jobs meeting their high expectations and skills. Also, they are not bothered to learn English due to their excellent education.

I just admire Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh. His achievement to the education standard in Malaysia can also be seen in the Besut Education Hub, said to be his pet project.

Last I heard, the hub is in disrepair, vandalised and ransacked after spending RM750 million.

Anonymous #33227154: The quality of our leaders really reflects the quality of our education system. Just observe how all our leaders behave and speak.

Anyway, most of the overseas scholarships are wasted on undeserving children of cronies. Those truly smart students will not stand a chance in obtaining overseas scholarships. That's the way our leaders dumb down the country. It's easier to rule and control fools.

Meerkat: Even decades ago, the opposition had said that Malaysia should and could have more universities. Note that, at that time, Malaysia had real quality universities, so quality wasn't a problem.

But the BN government wanted to control the people graduating based on their quota system. This sent a lot of lesser fortunate into saving all their lives to send their children abroad. Not all did out of choice; many did it out of need.

I'm sure most parents would like to have their children with them at the ages of 19-23 when they are in university but the BN government forced this separation. As a result, a lot studied overseas and stayed overseas.

If these had studied locally and contributed locally, we would have many more world-class universities, and not the BN definition of world class in their dream world.

DontPlayGod: The main reason is that these students sent overseas are from one race and they are supposed to support you-know-who when they return. But alas, after being exposed to outside news, they return and don't vote for the party they are supposed to vote.

They become voters for the opposition. Hence why send these people overseas only to return to be opposition supporters?

N1: When a corrupt leader siphoned all public funds to his personal bank account, there will be no more funds left for future generation to study abroad.

Please don't try to deceive the people by giving all kinds of stupid reasons.

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