“I feel sad that we are so scared of books, almost every month some book is being banned. It is making Muslims very weak.
“The Jews publish all sorts of books in America and then they control the world, while we are still scared of books,” he told FMT.
Zaid added that he was also not consulted nor informed by the home ministry of their intention prior to the ban.
“No, they do not consult or explain why,” he said, adding that there had never been such control over books in the country “like the kind we see today”.
“It is very unfortunate that this government is banning a lot of books. When Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister, there was no such thing, I do not recall many books banned during his time.
“This is suppose to be a more open government and it is unfortunate that they banned this book when it isn’t a religious book but more of a public policy one.
“Everyone should be given the space to comment and speak about their thoughts but the government is scared of thoughts, ideas and books,” he said.
Zaid, who joined DAP earlier this year, launched the book in October 2015. In it, he talks about a new and fresh conversation about the role of Islam in Malaysian politics and in public life.
He took to Twitter earlier today to lament the banning of his book.
“So the year didn’t end that well, My book ‘Assalamualaikum’ is now banned. Looks to me this govt prefer Muslims to burn effigies of political opponent(s), destroy beer bottles than reading books,” he posted on Twitter.
A check with a local bookstore website indicated that the book, which was on sale for RM19, is banned.
FMT is still waiting to get confirmation from the home ministry on the banning of the book.
This is the latest case of book banning related to publications that touch on Islam in the past three months.
On Oct 3, the home ministry announced the banning of five books with Islamic content, by Turkish author Mustafa Akyol, and two Malaysians – Ahmad Farouk Musa and Faisal Tehrani.
In an official government gazette dated Sept 28, 2017, the home ministry said the books were banned as they were likely to be prejudicial to public order as well as to alarm public opinion.