The US-based academic said he was approached by people who identified themselves as policemen while he was waiting to board his flight to Lahore.
Kuru, a Turkish-American, said a “tall plainclothes policeman” sat next to him and said they were informed he was a terrorist.
”I told him it was a lie. Then he asked to interview me,” the director of Islamic and Arabic studies at the San Diego State University told FMT, adding that he had taken a selfie with the “policeman”.
Kuru also claimed that two other plainclothes policemen were present, and one of them had questioned Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) founder-director Ahmad Farouk Musa the day before at a forum.
Another two “plainclothes policemen” joined their colleagues later, he claimed.
He said one of the “policemen” had also attempted to snatch his passport, but was stopped when Kuru yelled at him.
At that moment, Kuru said, he feared that he would be arrested and deported.
“I remember telling him that I was originally scheduled to meet Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
“I told him, ‘You invited me to meet the PM and now you are trying to arrest me?’”
Kuru said that when he was about to board the plane, the “tall policeman” approached him once more. Kuru said he showed the policeman his exchange with an official from the prime minister’s office.
Describing his experience as “hostile”, he said that when the five “policemen” initially approached him, he had no qualms as he had been assured by some high-level officials in government that he was “perfectly safe”.
He said the ordeal has crossed out any intention on his part of returning to Malaysia, something which he said he had also told the “policemen” who had questioned him.
Kuru was initially scheduled to launch his book at the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia on Monday, but this was called off later.
Following the cancellation, IRF stepped in to help get the book, which has been translated into Malay, launched at the University of Nottingham campus at Jalan Conlay, also on the same day.
FMT has contacted police for comment.