Outspoken law professor Abdul Aziz Bari, who has been derided for being critical of the Selangor sultan, has allegedly been banned by Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) from speaking at a seminar at the Selangor International Islamic University College (Kuis).

NONE Located in Kajang, Kuis is a higher education institution wholly owned by Mais, which comes under the purview of Selangor sultan.

Aziz was scheduled to present a paper tomorrow morning at the National Seminar on Islamic Civilisation and Thought 2011, organised by the Department of Islamic Civilisation and Thought, Islamic Academy of Kuis.

"But this morning I received a notice saying that someone in Mais, who claimed to be close with the Selangor palace, had told the organisers to drop my paper.

"The organisers pleaded with them to retain me as scheduled as many people were coming to the seminar to listen to me... but I learnt they were told point blank that they have to obey the order," the Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) lecturer told Malaysiakini .

The seminar was planned more than three months ago, said Aziz, an expert in matters of constitutional law, who has also written extensively on the role of the monarch.

Aziz was slated to present a paper on The Implementation of Syariah Criminal Laws in the Framework of Malaysia's Constitution . Besides academicians from local institutions invited to present papers  at the seminar, another speaker on the list is Kelantan state exco member Husam Musa.

NONE Aziz made headlines last month when police investigated him under the Sedition Act 1948 for comments he made on the Selangor sultan's decree on the state Islamic Affairs Department's 'inspection' of a multiracial thanksgiving dinner held in Damansara Utama on Aug 3.

Following this, the UIA suspended Aziz for six days. The suspension was lifted after a huge outcry from various bodies, including university students around the country and members of the academia.

According to Aziz, this is not the first time he is seen as persona non grata.

"Sometime in the middle of this year, quite a similar incident took place at the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (Ikim), when a senior officer said my name could not even be cited.

'Not all members of royal families oppose me'

“But the funny thing is that part of contents of the royal address prepared by the organisers were taken from my books," he said.

Ikim is an Islamic think tank established by the federal government.

The ban, said Aziz, could be due to his critical statements touching on actions of the Selangor sultan in both the issues of Jais' inspection and the appointment of the Selangor state secretary early this year.

During the tug-of-war between the Selangor state government and the palace over the appointment of former Jais head Muhammed Khusrin Munawi as the new state secretary, Aziz disputed arguments made by the palace.

However, Aziz said, not all members of the royal families opposed him.

"Some members of the royal families have called me up and expressed their support in what they see as Umno's hands in the palace.

"Obviously, these people know what I have written on the monarchy and they do not see me as insolent and rude towards the rulers. In fact they see my criticisms as good and constructive for the betterment of the institution itself," he added.