Lawyers representing Canadian Muslim preacher Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips have filed for a bankruptcy proceeding against local preacher Zamihan Mat Zin.

This comes after Zamihan failed to pay an unstipulated amount of damages to the Canadian at the agreed time, which was said to be almost two months ago.

The notice dated Oct 3 was filed by Bilal Philips’ lawyer from Messrs Raja Faisal Iqbal & Meor.

The matter has been fixed for case management before a Kuala Lumpur High Court senior assistant registrar on Oct 24.

Bilal Philips is the chancellor of the Islamic Online University. He has written over 50 books on Islam, and has been featured on several Islamic TV programmes.

It was reported on July 31 that Bilal Philips had settled his suit with Zamihan, after the latter agreed to apologise and retract a statement he posted on Facebook in November 2016 about the Canadian preacher.

Zamihan, who is presently the senior assistant director at the Islamic Development Department (Jakim), had claimed in his post that Bilal Philips was a supporter of international terrorism.

The Canadian had been due to speak at a function which was to be attended by the Perlis raja.

In his statement of claim filed last year, Bilal Philips said that Zamihan’s words describing him as a supporter of terrorism were false, defamatory and made without basis, given that he strove to promote peace and understanding of Islam, and rejected terrorism carried out in the name of religion.

Bilal later told reporters during the settlement that he has no connection to terrorism, and that instead he “criticised terrorism”.

"In fact, Islamic State has made me a target. They are trying to kill me. It defies logic that if I were a promoter (of terrorism) that they would want me killed," he said.