“There has to be a sincere desire by those within the educational system to be historically and factually true.”

The MIC president, in a statement, criticised Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s (UTM) shoddy attempts at cultural and religious comparison, saying that any attempt to do so had to be done carefully.

“Attempts to compare cultures and religions are always dangerous.

“It is dangerous even in the most liberated intellectual environment, what more in a multicultural and multi-religious Malaysia.

“Unless there is a soul searching attempt by those in positions of responsibility to identify the root cause of such a trend, and address it, we might have to live in an environment where such distortions will continue to occur and will become a norm.

“The supposed pedestal of knowledge has become a pool of ignorance. We have seen this in schools before and now we realise it is also evident in universities.”

Subramaniam said the lecture slides showed a serious dearth of knowledge and understanding of Malaysia’s cultures and religions and accused the creators of the slides of distorting facts to fit their “disordered and disturbed perception”.

“Such individuals have led to the release of educational content where facts have been dangerously mutilated by their disordered perception,” Subramaniam said.

“Distorted historical facts are in school textbooks, in examination questions and now in university slides.

“The current case reflects how this desire to be ignorant has permeated to the dons of the ivory towers.”

The slides, which touched on Hinduism and Sikhism, have gone viral with outraged netizens condemning the slides.

Among the controversial points in the slides were that Islam introduced the meaning of politeness and personal hygiene to Hindus in India.

“As a matter of fact, all Hindu scriptures, including the Vedas (1500 BC), have stated the need to arise at the dawn of light, bathe, pray and continue with the duties of the day,” Subramaniam said in emphasising the need for hygiene.