Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) says it has launched an investigation into the recent examination paper for its Ethnic Relations course.

"An official statement will be issued once the (investigation is concluded," said the university in a statement today.

It said that the university took the matter seriously because its students come from multi-cultural backgrounds.

"UniMAP will also review its vetting process for this course to ensure that lecturers are more sensitive towards ethnic and religious sensitivities.

"For now, the university urge the public to not cause provocations... and give room for the university to conduct a thorough investigation," said the institution.

UniMAP has come under fire from MIC over question 60 of the bi-lingual paper (in Bahasa Malaysia and English) which touched on controversial preacher Zakir Naik (above).

The question had read: "Zakir Naik is one of the icon of the Islamic world, he is very active in spreading true Islam and following the Quran and Sunnah of Rasulullah SAW. He is able to reason and to answer every question that is asked to [sic] him. However, in Malaysia, he is no longer allowed to deliver his preaching [sic]. In your opinion, as a Malaysian, why does this happen?"

The question provides several answers and more than one combination of answers can be chosen.

The options were: (1) Malaysians do not bother; (2) Sensitive Malaysians feel threaten [sic] for no reason; (3) Malaysians who are normally submissive without any reason; (4) Malaysians are ignorant about their own religion.

Contacted today, MIC vice-president C Sivarraajh said his party does not question Zakir's status as an "icon" among Muslims, but questioned the suggestive answers.