Professor who said Malays could fly sacked by Malaysian university3-MIN READ3-MIN1ListenPublished: 2:44pm, 24 Aug 2026A Malaysian Islamic university has formally distanced itself from an academic whose viral claims about ancient Malay civilisation – including that Malays could fly and taught the Chinese “flying kung fu” – have drawn ridicule from historians.In a statement on Sunday, the Malaysia" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="185230" data-entity-type="organization">International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) said Solehah Yaacob, a former linguistics professor, had been terminated from academic service on April 27 and was no longer entitled to claim any affiliation with the institution.The university’s Office for Communication, Advocacy and Promotion said Solehah was now barred from using any official title, position or association with IIUM.Select VoiceSelect Speed0.8x0.9x1.0x1.1x1.2x1.5x1.75x00:0000:001.00x
SRCSouth China Morning Post
LANGEN
LEANCenter-Right
WORDS113
ENT6
MON · 2026-08-24 · 06:44 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0824-105256
NSR-2026-0824-105256News Report·EN·Human Interest
Professor who said Malays could fly sacked by Malaysian university
The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) has terminated the academic service of former linguistics professor Solehah Yaacob, effective April 27. The university issued a statement on Sunday to distance itself from Yaacob, whose viral claims about ancient Malay civilization, including that Malays could fly and taught Chinese "flying kung fu," have been met with ridicule from historians.
Ushar DanieleSouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-08-24 · 06:44 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min
South China Morning PostFIG 01
Reading time
1min
Word count
113words
Sources cited
1cited
Entities identified
6entities
Quality score
100%
§ 01
Briefing Summary
AI-generatedNEWSAR · AI
The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) has terminated the academic service of former linguistics professor Solehah Yaacob, effective April 27. The university issued a statement on Sunday to distance itself from Yaacob, whose viral claims about ancient Malay civilization, including that Malays could fly and taught Chinese "flying kung fu," have been met with ridicule from historians. IIUM stated that Yaacob is no longer entitled to claim any affiliation with the institution and is barred from using any official title, position, or association with IIUM.
Confidence 0.85Sources 1Claims 5Entities 6
§ 02
Article analysis
Model · rule-basedFraming
Human Interest
Social Justice
Tone
Mixed Tone
AI-assessed
CalmNeutralAlarmist
Factuality
0.80 / 1.00
Factual
LowHigh
Sources cited
1
Limited
FewMany
§ 03
Key claims
5 extracted01
Solehah Yaacob is no longer entitled to claim any affiliation with IIUM and is barred from using any official title, position or association with the institution.
factualInternational Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
Confidence
1.00
02
Solehah Yaacob was terminated from academic service on April 27.
factualInternational Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
Confidence
1.00
03
Professor Solehah Yaacob claimed that ancient Malays taught the Chinese 'flying kung fu'.
factualSolehah Yaacob
Confidence
1.00
04
Professor Solehah Yaacob claimed that ancient Malays could fly.
factualSolehah Yaacob
Confidence
1.00
05
A Malaysian Islamic university has formally distanced itself from an academic whose viral claims about ancient Malay civilisation have drawn ridicule from historians.
factualInternational Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
Confidence
1.00
§ 04
Full report
1 min read · 113 words§ 05
Entities
6 identifiedKey playerOppositionContextPositiveNeutralNegative
Organizations2
§ 06
Keywords & salience
7 termsmalay civilization
1.00
flying claims
0.90
academic dismissal
0.80
international islamic university malaysia
0.70
historians
0.60
linguistics professor
0.50
viral claims
0.40
§ 07
Topic connections
Interactive graph No topic relationship data available yet. This graph will appear once topic relationships have been computed.