The proposal by religious authorities to ban one of the books by the scholar Ahmet T Kuru reinforces the book’s central thesis, said the book’s publisher Pertubuhan Lestari Hikmah Malaysia.

It explained that the 2022 book “Perikatan Ulama-Negara: Punca Autoritarianisme dan Kemunduran Dunia Muslim” (The Ulama-State Alliance: A Cause of Authoritarianism and Underdevelopment in the Muslim World) presents an examination of how Islamic authorities censor and suppress views, even those long recognised as legitimate differences.

The publisher also criticised the lack of dialogue in the lead-up to...