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Amid outcry and ridicule, a professor from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) has defended her controversial claims from a public lecture that the ancient Romans learned shipbuilding from Malay seafarers.
Solehah Yaacob's lecture was delivered in Dec. 31, 2022, but resurfaced in a video posted on Oct. 31 on Nota Kuliah, a YouTube channel that mainly shares religious sermons.
As the video went viral and criticism grew, IIUM launched an internal investigation into her remarks.
In a statement, IIUM said that her comments tarnished IIUM's academic integrity and reputation, and did not represent the university's official position, as quoted by Free Malaysia Today.
Doubling down
On Nov. 9, Solehah responded to the backlash on Facebook, saying she was "the victim of a media lynching", and proceeded to clarify her assertions.
Solehah, who holds a PhD in Arabic Language Studies, supported her hypothesis by citing various references, and emphasising that it was grounded in classical Arabic sources.
"Unlike the Europeans, who were largely continental, the Malays were a maritime civilisation," she wrote.
"I firmly believe that the Malays were among the first peoples in human civilisation to develop the art of shipbuilding," she added, "and that the Romans, like many other, learnt navigational skills from earlier seafaring civilisations — most probably from the maritime Malay world."
However, she did not include evidence to support this specific last claim in her post.
Other controversial claims
This shipbuilding theory was not the first contentious claim Solehah has made.
In September, she went on the podcast of Gabungan Nasionalis, a Malay-Muslim non-governmental organisation coalition, and suggested that ancient Malays could fly, and had taught "flying kung fu" to the Chinese, according to Free Malaysia Today.
Netizens debating her shipbuilding claims have also dug up her past research.
On Nov. 8, a Redditor unearthed a research paper Solehah published in 2018, examining possible shared connections and influences between Biblical and Islamic texts.
Among the sources cited in the paper was one from The Onion, to make a claim that the ancient Greek civilisation was completely fabricated by scholars between 1971 and 1974.
The Onion is a publication from the United States that writes satirical news articles.
Respect for differing opinions
Solehah concluded her response with an appeal for civilised discourse, hoping that "all forms of slander, insult, disinformation, and ridicule will come to an end".
"My hypothesis concerning the achievements of the Malays and the borrowings of the Romans may be right or wrong," she said.
"However, in both our academic and Islamic traditions, we are taught to respect differing opinions. In Islam, we do not persecute or condemn scholars for their views."
In IIUM's statement, quoted by Free Malaysia Today, the university said it upholds academic freedom, but emphasised that it needs to be balanced with scholarly responsibility and grounded in verified research when making public statements.
On Nov. 6, Malaysia's higher education minister Zambry Abd Kadir was asked to comment on the controversy, and responded that university lecturers should stick to their areas of expertise.
"We do not stop lecturers from expressing views related to their respective fields. However, it is not ideal when they comment on issues outside their field," he said, as quoted by Bernama.
Her shipbuilding claims were also discussed by Malaysian politicians in Parliament on Nov. 10, Malay Mail reported.
Syerleena Abdul Rashid from Malaysia's Democratic Action Party (DAP) said historians had debunked the assertions, insisting that history must be based on evidence rather than fantasy.
Wan Razali Wan Nor from the Malaysian Islamist Party (PAS), however, supported doing further research rather than outrightly dismissing the claims.
Top images from Nota Kuliah's YouTube and Solehah's Facebook
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