Universiti Malaya academic Dr Sharifah Munirah Alatas has urged the university to retract a journal article that cited a satirical news outlet as factual evidence, calling it “an academic embarrassment” that damages the integrity of Malaysian scholarship.
The paper, titled Discourse on the Bible Compilation Framework Timeline: A Relation with the Development of Islamic Sources, was authored by public university lecturer Solehah Yaacob and published in Jurnal Al-Tamaddun in 2018 (Vol.13, No.1, pp.83–94).
Munirah, who is Deputy Director and Principal Research Fellow at UM’s Allianz Centre for Governance, revealed that the paper cited a claim from the National Geographic Society supposedly stating that “ancient Greece was entirely fabricated” — a paragraph copied verbatim from The Onion, a US-based satirical news site.
The original parody article, Historians Admit to Inventing Ancient Greeks, was published in 2010 and featured in Our Dumb World: The Onion’s Atlas of the Planet Earth (2007).
“There are three serious problems with this paragraph, rendering the entire article unworthy of publication,” Munirah wrote on Facebook, saying the citation demonstrated “a lack of understanding of what satire is.”
She stressed that Jurnal Al-Tamaddun is indexed in Scopus and the ASEAN Citation Index and ranked as a Q1 journal under Scimago, saying such editorial lapses “tarnish the credibility of Malaysian academia.”
She called for the article’s immediate retraction and revision through proper peer review.
“This misuse of satirical material as evidence reflects a deeper malaise in our academic culture,” she warned.
Solehah previously stirred controversy after suggesting Prophet Muhammad’s wife Siti Khadijah may have Malay roots — a statement she later said was taken out of context.
Meanwhile, Professor Tajuddin Rasdi said the debate should be handled academically, not emotionally.
“She has the right to propose connections, but cannot present them as fact without evidence,” he said, urging scholars to engage through debate rather than dismissal.
