Dr. Zakir Naik is a thin person living simple life but very eccentric on his views about Islam. He is a Mumbai-based practicing doctor and president of the Islamic Research Foundation, has been a controversial figure for Muslim theologians for long. Very peculiar thing about Zakir Naik is that he is not a political personality, never endorses any party or leader, never seen him sharing space with any politician. You won’t find him attending political rallies and politicians attending his events. This can be seen as the uniqueness of a religious figure in India who is not using his influence in politics. There is a huge list of religious leaders those are either members of parliament or contest on party’s tickets or attending political rallies. He hasn’t done anything from above. However, he has his own voice and followers, more than any other religious leader in India.
He mesmerizes youth by answering their queries from how right is being suicide bomber to committing suicide, and many other topics. He literally counsels people and convinces them to a large extent by his arguments. What he speaks can be many times misinterpreted or misunderstood, the reason he conveniently explains the query without any caution note. It’s very difficult to say, what appeals to the Muslim youth in his speeches but he is heard by many. He has many young admirers, many educated Muslims who respect and follow him. Zakir Naik comes across as a well-educated intelligent rational voice of Islam, and hence people can connect with him. The structure of Sunni Islam is such that not many can claim to be very influential, but yes Naik has few takers. He is refreshingly different from other preachers, who are either busy defending their religion or very tiny trying to ferment some kind of revolutions. He, on other hand, claims to be an expert in comparative religion study and hence they see him countering other religions.
If you visit his social network pages, youth share, comment and interact with this person very religiously. However, it does not mean he has no critics or haters, he is hated by many, large number of Muslims across the country, both Shia and Sunni, earlier demanded that Dr. Zakir Naik should be expelled from the community. He is a staunch Muslim with religious fundaments, and over the years, he’s becoming more intolerant and dogmatic, which has unfortunately served only to increase his popularity. He has the right to free speech, so I’m not really sure what can be done to curb his influence. Understanding the logical flaws in his seemingly impressive arguments is often too complex a task for his target audience (and possibly, even for him). Apart from this, I personally don’t think, he has any capacity or intention to cause any significant harm to the society. If you ask me the Owaisi brothers are much more provocative and dangerous than him.
Many people used to seeing Muslims on back foot defending their religion, find it revolting to see a Muslim heaping criticisms on them and not only that but spitting verses from their books to put forward claims and counter-claims. That can be fun to watch for many Muslims. He is also accused of openly praising Osama bin Laden in his speeches. For Muslims, the most controversial of Dr. Naik’s statements, however, relate to Yazid, the quintessential villain in Muslim theology, whose army was responsible for the killing of Imam Husain, the Prophet’s grandson, in the battle of Karbala in 680 AD. At a conference in December 2007 in Mumbai, he used the expression Radiallah tala anho (May Allah be pleased with him) while referring to Yazid, which outraged his audience. This is not the first time that he came under scanner. Anyways, Naik is in Saudi Arabia, where he has gone for ‘umrah’. Naik is popular in Bangladesh for his Peace TV rants. According to a Bangladesh newspaper, militant Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader, ran propaganda on Facebook last year quoting Naik. The NIA had earlier this year arrested cleric Abdus Sami Qasmi, a resident of Delhi’s Seelampur area, for allegedly inciting the youth to join outfits like IS. Sami, who studied at Darul Uloom Deoband, would raise emotive national and international issues such as the Muzaffarnagar riots, Prophet’s cartoons to incite youths to rise against “anti-Islamic” forces.
Naik is banned in the UK and Canada for peddling Salafist Islam and hate speech. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia. In India, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) does not provide for banning individuals.
The Dhaka attackers were not the only ones inspired by the controversial speeches of Naik. Islamic State’s Hyderabad module head Mohammad Ibrahim Yazdani too confessed that his inclination towards violent outfits working to establish Shariah law was also because of Naik. In fact, Yazdani went to Mumbai specially to attend one of Naik’s congregations in 2010 as a “volunteer” and listened to his sermons. Yazdani stayed in Mumbai for the full 10-day camp, organised by Naik-led Islamic Research Foundation. Yazdani (29), who formed the Hyderabad module along with 10 others after coming in touch with Syria-based handlers, he was following Naik’s speeches on TV and YouTube since 2004. “Ibrahim Yazdani’s journey to Ahle-Hadees, a puritanical strain of Islam, actually started only after listening to Naik when he was a teenager.
Anyway, I too saw one of his video on Youtube today, but it did not impress me much. Let the investigating agencies find out the truth, and reason why the youth are getting misguided by his speeches and book him if proved guilty.
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