Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Naik plays 'pendatang' card, says Chinese should go back before he does

Despite facing calls for deportation by multiple parties, a defiant Zakir Naik called on the Malaysian Chinese to “go back” first as they were the “old guests” of the country.

“Later on, more people came and Malaysia became fully Muslim. Then you have the Chinese coming, the Indian coming, the British coming. They are our new guests.

"People call me a guest. So I said, before me, the Chinese were the guests. They aren’t born here. If you want the new guest to go first, (then) ask the old guests to go back.

“The Chinese weren’t born here, most of them. Maybe the new generation, yes.

Zakir made those remarks about the Malaysian Chinese when he was talking about how Islam had spread peacefully in the region through traders at the “Executive Talk bersama Dr Zakir Naik” in Kota Baru, Kelantan last Thursday (Aug 8).

In the same venue, Zakir’s speech was also chastised by many parties after he compared the Hindus in Malaysia to the Muslims in India, saying that the Hindus here enjoyed more than 100% rights in Malaysia compared to Muslims in India.

He alleged that the Hindus here were more loyal to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi than to Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad.

Zakir - who is an Indian citizen - has stirred controversy in Malaysia with his open evangelism criticising non-Muslims.

He is wanted in India over corruption charges but he was not deported, with certain parties saying that the charges were trumped-up.

 Mahathir has since admitted that Malaysia was in a catch-22 situation as Zakir was “an unwelcome guest Malaysia can’t send away”.