TURKISH author and journalist Mustafa Akyol, who proposed to depart Malaysia after he was summoned by the local religious authorities for questioning, was detained at the airport on the way out last night.

The Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF), who was his host, tweeted that Mustafa had been stopped at the KLIA.

“After being harassed and summoned by (the) Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi), Akyol (is) now being detained by immigration at KLIA,” the IRF said on Twitter yesterday night. 

In a follow up tweet, IRF said: “We suspect it might have to do with Jawi. Creeping Talibanisation.”

IRF director Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa told FMT he had been unable to reach Mustafa all night.

“I could not get in touch with him after he told me he was stopped at the immigration. I presumed he was taken away,” he said.

Farouk said Mustafa also had not contacted his wife as promised.

Farouk’s said his calls to the immigration authority at the airport were also going unanswered.

Mustafa was scheduled to speak on the topic “The Islamic Jesus: The Commonalities Between Judaism, Christianity and Islam”, at Nottingham University Malaysia’s teaching centre in Kuala Lumpur yesterday afternoon, but the Federal Territory Religious Department (Jawi) had asked that the forum be postponed so that it could question the journalist.

Mustafa was told to present himself at the Jawi office to answer questions on allegedly teaching without the requisite credentials.

Farouk, the event organiser, was also called up and questioned for allegedly abetting Mustafa. – September 26, 2017.