PETALING JAYA: The Malaysia National Sikhs Movement (GerakSikh) have filed a police report against the author and publisher of a book entitled “Yahudi, Kristian, Hindu dan Buddha berasal daripada Islam?” (Did Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism originate from Islam?) over one of its topics “Agama Sikh berasal daripada Islam” (Sikhism originates from Islam).In a press statement released today, GerakSikh secretary-general Amarjit Singh Gill urged the authorities to investigate the author on several factual errors published pertaining to other religions, including Sikhism.
“It is shocking that the author and the publisher can be so careless to print a topic entitled ‘Agama Sikh berasal daripada Islam’, which is clearly meant to confuse the reader and others to understand that the Sikh religion originated from Islam.
“This is an attempt by the author to try to blend the Sikh religion with Islam so as to confuse the people with perhaps an attempt to bring persons of different faith into the Islamic religion,” Amarjit said.
Calling the actions of the author an “act of blasphemy”, he said it should not be tolerated by anyone, more so in Malaysia where all faiths live in harmony.
“There were also grave factual errors in the book, including a statement that suggests that Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, had performed the Hajj in Mecca and that Kabir, a devout Muslim saint, had come up with the base of the Sikh religion before it was founded by Guru Nanak,” the Ipoh-based lawyer said.
He called the above statements on Sikhism in the book as worrying and, as can be seen, the views were similar to those made by Zakir Naik, a controversial Islamic preacher from India who had been in Malaysia earlier this year.
“Malaysian Sikhs are upset with the publication of the book with these erroneous facts on Sikhism. It is an attempt to change the history or dilute the facts on the foundation of Sikhism to the public at large and is utterly wrong,” Amarjit said.
He added that GerakSikh demanded that the author issue a public apology and that the relevant authority immediately remove the books from bookshelves until the errors were rectified.
He called for the authorities to investigate the matter thoroughly so as to ensure that it did not happen again.
In June this year, a controversial series of slides under the Tamadun Islam dan Tamadun Asia (Titas) subject in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) had among other things, claimed that Sikhism was a combination of Islam and Hinduism but that “Sikhism founder Kabir” did not fully understand Islam and was influenced by the surrounding Hindu communities.
The controversy led to the UTM vice-chancellor making a public apology and the lecturer who had prepared the slides, being sacked.