Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mujahid Yusof Rawa has been criticised by PAS information chief Nasrudin Hassan for being “unfair” towards controversial Indian preacher Zakir Naik.

This followed the de facto religious affairs minister stating that Zakir’s style of preaching was “unsuitable” as it had appeared to belittle other religions.

Today, Nasrudin questioned if Mujahid was “under the influence by certain quarters” to say such things, pointing to the latter’s contrary stand on the preacher back in 2017.

“Mujahid should be ashamed and look at the statement he made about Zakir in 2017. Mujahid once characterised Zakir’s programmes as intellectual debate programmes. 

“...Or has Mujahid been encouraged or under the influence or control of certain quarters to apply pressure on Zakir?” he asked in a statement, not specifying who he meant by “certain quarters.”

“It is not impossible that Mujahid’s statement, that insulted Zakir and assumed he belittled other religions, was encouraged by certain parties who were previously uneasy about him."

Nasrudin further compared Mujahid’s stance on the preacher to his handling of other issues.

“This is different from the way he handled LGBT issues. He (Mujahid) invited (transgender activist) Nisha Ayub to his office for a discussion and held a press conference afterwards offering several alternative solutions for the community. 

“...Likewise, Mujahid also arranged a meeting with (Penang Deputy Chief Minister II) P Ramasamy to address allegations that he was involved with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,” he said, referring to a July meeting between the Penang Deputy Chief Minister II and Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin over the LTTE and Zakir.