KOTA BARU: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was praised by Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik for defending the needs and rights of Muslims and Islamic nations.
He said this includes standing against the might of global superpowers such as United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) for their involvement in the Middle East.
He said this in a lecture before a 100,000 strong crowd at the Sultan Muhammad IV stadium here on Friday evening
The ‘Dr Zakir Naik: The Kelantan Tour 2019' was organised by the Pas-led Kelantan state government.
He said that Dr Mahathir was also the only Muslim leader with courage to stand up to the UK and US for their alleged war crimes in the Middle East.
"Prime Minister of Malaysia is the only Muslim leader who set up the war crimes tribunal in 2011 which found that the US and UK had given false evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
“No other Muslim country in the world had such courage except for Malaysia,” he said.
Also present at the event was Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob, his deputy Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah, senior state leaders and Ketereh MP Tan Sri Annuar Musa.
In his talk which lasted some two hours Zakir also claimed that former US president George W. Bush and former UK prime minister Tony Blair would be arrested if they ever visited Malaysia due to their orders to invade Iraq in 2003.
This too, Zakir attributed to the courage of Dr Mahathir.
"If Bush and Blair set foot in this country, they will be arrested,” he said referring to the 2011 verdict reached by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission.
The commission also known as the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, established by Dr Mahathir in 2007, had found Bush and Blair guilty of crimes against peace, humanity, and genocide during the war in Iraq.
"No Muslim country did this except for Malaysia, Praise be to God,” said the Malaysian permanent resident.