Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – When his online lecture on how multicultural performing arts transcend race was cancelled in early June by the Islamic Center of a famous university in Malaysia, Ramli Ibrahim was both confused and angry.
An official statement from the University of Technology Malaysia (UTM), one of Malaysia’s most respected public universities, said, “The Islamic Center of the university has instructed the organizers to cancel the plan for undisclosed reasons.”
Ramli is the art director of the famous Sutra Dance Theatre in Kuala Lumpur. He is a Malay Muslim. He is well-known for his choreography of Indian classical dances (especially the Odissi style). He called UTM’s Islamic Center “Narrow-Minded” and “ Paranoid”. The center did not respond to Al Jazeera’s questions about the cancellation.