A professor from Malaysia, who gained notoriety for disseminating an array of outlandish pseudo-historical ideas, has been relieved of her duties. Her controversial theories included the claim that ancient Malays imparted their flying kung-fu skills to the Chinese.
Linguist Solehah Yaacob was officially removed from her role as an Arabic linguistics instructor at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) on April 27. The university’s officials confirmed this decision on Sunday.
“She is no longer affiliated with our university as a professor,” stated a spokesperson, who did not disclose the specific reasons behind her dismissal.
The spokesperson further emphasized that Solehah Yaacob is prohibited from using any titles or positions associated with IIUM in promotional activities, media coverage, written works, advertisements, social media, or any form of publicity, whether directly or indirectly.
Yaacob first caught significant online attention in November last year when a video from her 2022 lecture reemerged. In this lecture, she made the bold assertion that ancient Malays were responsible for teaching the Romans the art of shipbuilding.
She doubled down on claims and became the target of intense criticism and mockery as other wild theories emerged, including iron ore deposits being the product of meteor strikes.
An infuriated Yaacob has vowed to challenge her dismissal in court.
“I was dismissed within 24 hours and not given the opportunity to appeal,” she told Free Malaysia Today.
She also revealed she had turned down the university’s compensation offer that was “equivalent to six months’ salary.”
Yaacob was fired just one day after receiving a Malaysian Research Assessment (MyRA) award from the university.
She was dismissed from her professorship – just five months after IIUM was forced to speak out in response to her shipbuilding claims.
“IIUM upholds academic freedom, but such freedom must be exercised responsibly and grounded in academic accuracy,” the university said, without naming the academic.
Yaacob has come under heavy criticism for the wild claims she has peddled. One theory she peddled came on a podcast, hosted by non-governmental organizations, where she claimed the ancient Malays possessed some sort of supernatural ability and taught flying kung-fu to the Chinese.
Her theory claiming the Malays taught shipbuilding to the Romans was emphatically debunked by historians.
Yaacob claimed the ancient Malays had a “superior nautical knowledge” compared to their European counterparts.
Online, she was ridiculed and dubbed “Prof. Sambal Belcan,” the shrimp paste professor, after trying to present the claims as fact, Sinar Daily reported.
James Chin, a political commentator and professor, branded her theory as “pure pseudoscience” and warned that those who try to challenge her thoughts are labeled “anti-Malay, anti-Islam, or worse, a tool of colonial erasure.”
Wan Ramli Wan Daud, a historian, said there was no evidence to support the Yaacob claims, adding any similarities in shipbuilding methods adopted by the civilizations were coincidental, the Strait Times reported.
Despite the heat, the prof defended her remarks, claiming on social media, “My hypothesis, grounded in classical Arabic sources, proposes that the Romans acquired aspects of the art of shipbuilding from the peoples of the Malay Archipelago.”
She also claimed that iron ore deposits came from meteor strikes.
Internet sleuths also appeared to uncover she cited the satirical website “The Onion” in a 2018 journal article. The article has since been edited, with the reference removed.