YOURSAY | You don't owe him, a foreigner, a duty to tell him how to behave himself in the host country.

David Dass: Who is Zakir Naik that you, our minister, must explain to him the reality of Malaysia? De facto Islamic Affairs Minister Mujahid Yusof Rawa described someone who ridicules the faith of more than 40 percent Malaysians as “inspirational”.

We are a multiracial country. All of us, whatever our race or religion, must get along. We must respect the beliefs of one another even as we believe what we believe and pray and worship in our own way.

We accept that people who follow different religions have fundamentally different beliefs. But these varying beliefs do not threaten our peace or stability.

Every democracy in the world allows freedom of worship. No democracy tolerates or allows religious persecution. It was not always like that. Many have written about the evils of colonialism, slavery, apartheid, the genocide of native populations in Australia, North and South America. Not anymore.

Racial extremism continues to exist everywhere - simmering in most Western societies. But it is in the minority. Islamic State, the Taliban and other Islamic terror groups shocked the world, both West and East. The world has to find a better way for all to co-exist. Crusades and religious wars should be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Educate people, give them jobs and show them how life can be enjoyed and celebrated amidst the diversity of races, cultures and religions. Religious text can be interpreted literally, narrowly or it can be interpreted broadly and contextually to modern times and to present circumstances and realities.

Inter-religious dialogue should be promoted. We should not look at each other with suspicion and distrust as people out to destroy or undermine our race or religion.

Most people do not have time for such nonsense. Most people struggle with more mundane day-to-day issues of work, family, school, health and cost of living. That is where the focus of government should be.

Hang Babeuf: Yes, Malaysians must live, and must all learn to live, "in harmony". But "harmony" on whose terms? Whose harmony, imposed by whom? The terms of the kind of Islam that impugns and ridicules and scorns and insults all other faiths?

The matter is not so simple as some, notably the zealous defenders of Zakir Naik, think.

It is only the sheer self-serving stupidities of Zakir Naik's so-called "work in comparative religions" that make this kind of talk, this defending of Zakir Naik's Islamist arrogances, seem sensible.

Zakir Naik - and not uniquely among triumphalist Muslims and Islamists - projects and promotes a view or doctrinally-based outlook that has in-built into it a foundational disrespect for all non-Muslim faiths. That is why he is a trouble-maker. And that is the core of the problem.

It is the basis of the offence that Zakir Naik gives (and that he and his followers feel entitled to give) to the rest of "differently believing" humanity.

In sum: Zakir Naik's entire approach is to judge all other religions from the standpoint of Islam - as he sees and "understands"' it - and so to find them all wanting. And ridiculous, absurd, defective.

His approach is an exercise in the persistent disrespect of others. One that is grounded in and justified in the name of Islam. (So he does Islam no favours either!)

Idiots and mischief-makers in all religious faith communities/traditions can play this same game. And whoever does it, it is dangerous, not constructive, and inherently offensive.

Oh, yes, and one other thing.

It is a fraud and a deception to offer this kind of abusive exercise as an example of, and under the cover of, "comparative religion". Experts in that academic field could never accept the perverse polemics in which Zakir Naik trades as serious scholarship.

The man is a dangerous fraud - even though he may “sincerely” believe in what he offers. He deceives others, and he may first have succeeded - as the basis of his public career - in deceiving himself. But that is no excuse.

Hplooi: The following are Zakir Naik’s constant excuses. (1) He did not explicitly and overtly "support" extremism. (2) He is "for peace". (3) He is an expert in comparative religion.

1. While it is true that Zakir Naik did not openly and explicitly support Islamic extremism, his preaching of an extremely introverted form of Islam lays the mental framework which becomes the psychological and ideological bedrock of future extremists.

The strict Wahhabism follows Saudis orthodoxy (it is not an accident that Zakir Naik received an award from the Saudi king and was funded from the Saudis early on (even now?).

His key advocacy: (a) Strict exceptionalism of the faithful, ie, conscious segregation from non-believers. (b) Repudiation of civilisational dialogue (except under controlled conditions). (c) Strict literal interpretation.

Such an ideological bedrock is the root of "saws" emanating from the mouth of Zakir Naik, for example, "Muslim should only vote for Muslims", "In Muslim majority country, house of worship by others should be constricted", etc (the last cited is in record). Note: The café bomber in Bangladesh took inspiration from Zakir Naik.

2. Zakir Naik as expert in "comparative religion". A person who speaks many languages (ie, polyglot) is not a linguist. A butcher who calls himself a surgeon would… rightly be called a charlatan. In this case, of Zakir Naik, he is lionised by his fan-base as an inspirational expert in the Western tradition.

A linguist as we understand, approach language from the scholarly perspective of social anthropology. Similarly, with "comparative religion", you start with ontology (being and reality), epistemology (theory of knowledge), theodicy (the problem of evil or divine justice).

You ground yourself in understanding aforesaid historically and contemporaneously, not spout scriptures and say my God is bigger than your god.

3. But Zakir Naik seems refreshingly new to the Muslim ummah in Malaysia, fed a steady diet of strict orthodoxy from young. He wears suits and speaks in English and used crowd psychology similar to the Christian revivalist movements who are big business in the West. Simple folks love him with the fervent belief that Zakir Naik is an expert in comparative religion.

But Zakir Naik is dangerous. I assert that he is subtly subverting the Malaysian civil-administrative (and especially security) apparatus. That's why so much resistance is in place to deporting him, while less obvious cases are deported pronto to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, etc.

Wg321: Mujahid is making use of Zakir Naik to win over potential majority votes from the Malay. That is why he said that Zakir Naik's preaching is "inspirational".

In other words, he has made up his mind to abandon the minority non-Malay votes in favour of majority Malay votes in order to overcome Zakir Naik's influence over Umno and PAS. That is his ulterior motive in praising Zakir Naik. A very cunning way of playing religious politics.

Anonymous_1527685386: YB, you don't owe him, a foreigner, a duty to explain or educate him how to behave in a respectful manner when he is in the host country.

YB, you are not carrying yourself as a statesman who is firm and means business when it comes to addressing the threat to unity and peace, especially those caused by religious extremists.

YB, you don't look tough or righteous as we had thought before you were voted in. May God bless you to do a good job and serve the people of new Malaysia.

Vijay47: Truly, Mujahid, you must have been inspired by your newfound spiritual advisor. Christians are expected to turn the other cheek, but you went the whole nine yards and embarked on a torrent of hugs and more hugs.

So going by Zakir Naik's standards, you must be a better Christian than Christians. Yes, God does indeed work in mysterious ways.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.