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According to the above Wikipedia article, Dr. Zakir Naik obtained Malaysian citizenship. However, there is no citation supplied in favor of that claim.

The above interview doesn't say anything definitive about his citizenship.

Is Dr. Zakir Naik a citizen of Malaysia?

user366312
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  • What is the claim here? Are you saying it is impossible to be from India and have Malaysian citizenship? The wiki article doesn't seem to be claiming that he is a citizen of both countries, just that he is from India and a citizen of Malaysia. – Joe W Nov 27 '22 at 23:30
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    @JoeW, Is he a citizen of Malaysia or not? – user366312 Nov 27 '22 at 23:36
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    What is the claim that he isn't? Just because a country doesn't accept people having dual citizenship doesn't mean that another country can't accept them as a citizen and not care what the other country that they have citizenship in thinks. It doesn't matter if India doesn't recognize it or they remove the citizenship in India. – Joe W Nov 27 '22 at 23:44
  • @JoeW, read the edit in OP. – user366312 Nov 27 '22 at 23:56
  • This doesn't seem on-topic for skeptics.stackexchange –  Nov 28 '22 at 05:01
  • @Stranger: why not? – Oddthinking Nov 28 '22 at 06:01
  • "there is no citation supplied in favor of that claim" is not quite true. The article actually offers *three* citations, but the first two make no mention of him being in Malaysia at all, and the third only mentions that he is "in exile" there, not that he has been given citizenship. – F1Krazy Nov 28 '22 at 12:39
  • @Oddthinking Not sure, but I said it doesn't *seem* on topic. It's merely asking if someone lives somewhere is true? –  Nov 29 '22 at 01:56
  • @Stranger: I think there is a clear, notable claim that can be addressed with empirical evidence. That is 99% of our "on-topic" rules. (Pedantry: The question is about citizenship. not residence.) – Oddthinking Nov 29 '22 at 09:53
  • @Oddthinking Makes sense, I wonder why so many people downvoted it then :/ (I did not yet). –  Nov 29 '22 at 10:16

1 Answers1

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The Wikipedia page has a banner template suggesting the page has multiple issues. The lack of a reference to the citizenship claim is just one.

The claim probably came from a false viral meme shared in 2020 claiming he was granted Malaysian Citizenship.

At the time, The Quint did a fact-check and confirmed the alleged photo of the ceremony was wrongly attributed. They tracked down a 2019 news report that quoted the Malaysian Home Minister:

"On the issue of application for Malaysian citizenship by Zakir, the review found that there was no record of application for citizenship of the individual in the database,"

This doesn't rule out that citizenship was granted after 2019, but suggests that both the meme and the poor-quality Wikipedia cannot be trusted in this regard.

Oddthinking
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  • On the other hand, the same Wikipedia page suggests he was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship and does provide a source at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170519-indian-terror-suspect-granted-saudi-citizenship/ – Henry Nov 28 '22 at 01:56