PUTRAJAYA has cancelled the Saudi-backed King Salman Centre for International Peace (KSCIP) project, which was mooted by the previous Barisan Nasional administration.

Defence Minister Mohammad Sabu, better known as Mat Sabu, said the centre’s temporary office in Wisma HLA, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur will be closed.

“The government has decided the operations for KSCIP will be ended and the temporary office will be shut down immediately,” he said in a written parliamentary reply today.

KSCIP was proposed and championed by former defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein last year when Saudi Arabian Prince Salman Abdul Aziz visited Malaysia, and was meant to symbolise both nations’ effort in combating terrorism.

Mat Sabu said the KSCIP’s functions will now be undertaken by the Malaysia Institute of Defence and Security (Midas) under the Defence Ministry.

The Amanah president was responding to a question from Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto on the status of KSCIP and its involvement in combating terrorism, especially from the Middle East.

Former prime minister Najib Razak had said earlier this year that the centre aimed to correct international misconceptions about Islam and combat rhetoric spread by terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State.

The setting up of the centre was criticised by Malaysians and Islamic scholars as being counterproductive.

Department of Islamic Development Malaysia officer and preacher Zamihan Mat Zin had said that the idea of asking the Saudi government to help fight terrorism in Southeast Asia was “unrealistic”.

Prominent Islamic scholar Ahmad Farouk Musa had also lambasted Putrajaya’s decision to give a 16ha plot of land to KSCIP, saying it “made little sense”. – August 6, 2018.