Ramasamy slams IIUM’s response to lecturer’s claim
Urimai chairman P Ramasamy today hit out at the response of International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) to one of its academics who claimed that the Romans learnt the art of shipbuilding from the Malays.
Ramasamy, who lectured at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia from 1981 to 2005, said Solehah Yaacob’s claim had sparked uproar in academic circles, particularly because her area of expertise bore little relevance to disciplines such as history, archaeology, or maritime studies – fields which he said were necessary to make such sweeping historical claims.
Solehah, an Arabic language lecturer at IIUM, was believed to have made the remarks after the discovery of a 13th-century shipwreck near Pulau Melaka last Friday.
In response, IIUM said yesterday that it regretted the academic’s actions as they had…
