by Latheef Farook :
About twenty years ago when I was looking after Bahrain covering Saudi Arabia too for Dubai based daily Gulf News, Islamic scholar Dr Zakir Naik visited our office.
I have heard about him and watched his thought provoking speeches on Islam and comparative religion from modern perspective, yet never had an opportunity to meet him. Thus my curiosity to meet him.
We got so engrossed in the conversation the meeting lasted more than two hours .It was the time when the legendary South African Muslim preacher Ahmed Deedat who took the world by storm with his enlightening speeches was aging. His lectures were intellectual tonic for Muslims and others worldwide steeped in darkness due to ignorance of Islam.
I realised that Dr Zakir Naik had all the potentials to succeed Ahmed Deedat. He continued his work relentlessly visiting countries all over the world creating unprecedented religious awakening. Attracted by the role he played rulers of almost every Muslim country, though secular and ruthless autocratic dictators, received, awarded and encouraged him.
The religious awakening created by his lectures made him a serious impediment to Israeli sponsored and United States led British, French and Russian war mongers in their-on-going campaign to demonise Islam, invade and destroy Muslim countries and massacre Muslims. With Narendra Modi becoming prime minister of India RSS Hindutva forces joined hands with these modern western crusaders. It has been an open secret that the RSS dominated government has been trying its best impose ban on him.
Thus he was a prime target.
It was under such circumstance comes the allegation that his preaching was inciting people to take to violence. One of the five Bangladeshi militants, Nibras Islam, who early July 2016 killed 22 people at Holey Artisan Bakery in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, had supposed to have told that he was influenced by Dr Naik’s preaching.
Many suspect this as an Indian-Bangladesh (an Indian satellite) conspiracy to silence him and stop his lecture series which expose the myth associating Islam with war against terrorism.
Responding to the incident in Dhaka, the government swiftly acted against Dr Naik when Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju stated that “Dr Naik’s speeches were matter of concern for us. Our agencies are working on this”.
Maharashtra State Intelligence Department (SID) despatched a special team to probe Dr Naik only to concede that there is simply no case against him. As part of the preliminary probe, the SID has studied hundreds of YouTube videos and speeches given by Dr Naik in and outside India. Senior officials said a dossier of evidence has also been received and collected from the other intelligence teams in various States.
A report in the Indian daily HINDU by Sharad Vyas under the headline “Maharashtra probe finds no case against Naik” had this to state;
“Maharashtra State Intelligence Department (SID) has given a clean chit to Dr Zakir Naik, conceding that there is simply no case to be made out against him. Sources in the special SID team handling the probe ordered by the State government said Dr. Naik will not be and cannot be arrested upon his return to India”.
“We are tracking his movements and only if he speaks something out of turn, we can ‘pin’ him down on a charge. For now, we are closely monitoring him,” said a senior police official, who conveyed the preliminary assessment of the SID findings to the ‘higher-ups’. There is no other strong evidence to link Dr Naik to terror-related activities other than reported charges that he inspired the Dhaka and Hyderabad terrorists. His strong defence of religious codes, such as the ones imposed by the Taliban, references to Osama bin Laden, and IS, does not result in any direct or indirect charges against him, senior officials told The Hindu.
In Chennai several Muslim outfits staged protest , expressing solidarity with Dr and criticised the Centre and the Maharashtra government for trying to "stifle" the voice of a man of "peace and harmony."
Another report in the Indian media under the title “Mumbai-based Islamic preacher Zakir Naik under NIA scanner after Dhaka terror attack” had this to state;
A medical doctor by professional training, 49 year old Dr Zakir Naik is renowned as a dynamic international orator on Islam and Comparative Religion. He is the President of Islamic Research Foundation, Mumbai, India. Dr Zakir clarifies Islamic viewpoints and clears misconceptions about Islam, using the Qur’an, authentic Hadith and other religious Scriptures as a basis, in conjunction with reason, logic and scientific facts. He is popular for his critical analysis and convincing answers to challenging questions posed by audiences after his public talks.
In the last 20 years, up to the year 2015,Dr Naik has delivered over 2000 public lectures all over the world.
Amongst the billion plus population of India Dr Naik was ranked No. 82 in ‘The 100 Most Powerful Indians’ list published by Indian Express in the year 2009 and ranked No. 89 in 2010. He was ranked No. 3 in the ‘Top 10 Spiritual Gurus of India in 2009’ and topped this list in 2010. He was ranked in the top 70 list of the ‘500 Most Influential Muslims in the World’ issued annually by Georgetown University, USA, in the years 2011, 2012, 2013/14 and 2014/15.
He started the Peace TV in January 2006 and remains the driving force behind this Network which is today the largest watched ‘Islamic’ as well as ‘any Religious’ Satellite TV channel in the world, with over 100 million viewership, of which 25% are Non-Muslims. Later he launched Peace TV Urdu, Bengali and Chinese languages and plans to expand this service to cover the ten major languages of the world.
Dr Zakir Naik appears regularly on many International TV channels in over 200 countries of the world. He is regularly invited for TV and Radio interviews. Over a hundred of his talks, dialogues, debates and symposia are available on DVDs. He has authored many books on Islam and Comparative Religion.
He has successfully participated in several symposia and dialogues with prominent personalities of other faiths. His public dialogue with Dr William Campbell (of USA) on the topic, “The Qur’an and the Bible in the Light of Science” held in Chicago, USA, on 1st April 2000 was a resounding success. His interfaith Dialogue with prominent Hindu Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on the topic, “The Concept of God in Hinduism and Islam in the Light of Sacred Scriptures” held at Palace Grounds, Bangalore, on 21st January 2006, was highly appreciated by people of both faiths.
Shaikh Ahmed Deedat, the world famous orator on Islam and Comparative Religion, who had called Dr Zakir “Deedat Plus” in 1994, presented a plaque in May 2000 with the engraving “Awarded to Dr Zakir Abdul Karim Naik for his achievement in the field of Da’wah and the study of Comparative Religion.” “Son what you have done in 4 years had taken me 40 years to accomplish, said Ahmed Deedat.
According to a report in The Indian Express citing Zee Media Bureau it was on this Dr Zakir Niak’s head that controversial right-wing leader Sadhvi Prachi placed a bounty of Rs 50-lakh Speaking to the media in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, Prachi labelled Naik as a 'terrorist' .
This is the sorry state of affairs in Indian politics today.
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