From the recent past and the present, it is very easy to conclude that for any criminal or terrorist, it is easy to escape India if they have money, contacts and followers. For even a small suspicion of a crime, the common public is put behind bars and does not get bail for months; but the ones who are connected and have money can find their way out of the country very easily. Whether they are businessmen like Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya or terrorists like Dawood Ibrahim and Zakir Naik. The first question that comes to our mind is how did they get away from the Indian airports when we can’t even take a bottle of water beyond a certain point.
Zakir Abdul Karim Naik is an Islamic fundamentalist who fled India in 2016 on charges of spreading hate and money laundering. When confronted with allegations of hate speech, Naik repeatedly claimed his remarks were “distorted” and “misrepresented”. His trademark is his “modern” Western Business Suit and a skullcap. He fled India in 2016 on charges of spreading hate and money laundering. That same year, India’s counter-terrorism agency accused him of promoting religious hatred and other illegal activities. Naik was born in Mumbai and completed his education in the city, including an MBBS degree. In his twenties, he engaged in socio-religious activities and eventually founded the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), now banned in India. The Islamic Research Foundation was organizing programmes to intimidate the youth and create hatred in the minds of the youth about all religions that were not Islam. In 2016, he drew international attention when he said one of his suspects in the Dhaka café attack that killed 22 people was impressed by Naik’s speech.
IRF was banned considering its nature and how it could be harmful to peace in India. The Union Home Ministry stated in a statement that the IRF had been engaging in activities detrimental to national security and had the potential to disturb the peace and communal harmony when the ban was extended for an additional five years in November 2021. The notification against Naik claimed that he had been “encouraging and aiding followers to promote or attempt to promote, on grounds of religion, disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious communities and groups which are prejudicial to the integrity and security of the country.”
Naik applied for asylum in Malaysia in 2017, and he is now a citizen of that country. India has been attempting to deport him, but little has been accomplished. Red Notices have not been issued for Naik by Interpol. In 2019, Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his country had the authority to not deport Naik if he “would not be accorded justice” in India.
The preacher was prohibited from speaking in public in Malaysia that same year after it was claimed that he made derogatory statements about the Chinese and Hindu ethnic minorities there. Later, Naik expressed regret for his comments. Mahathir then said Naik was trying to “stir up religious feelings”. In 2020, Naik claimed the Indian government had offered him safe passage into the country if he spoke in favour of the abrogation of Article 370. This man has been making claims over and over again. The concern-worthy thought is that he managed to escape India, get citizenship in Malaysia and continue to do his work from wherever he is actually. And the world is watching it happen while he also visited Qatar for the FIFA Football World Cup. He had already claimed that he was invited by FIFA to attend the event while Qatar Government had denied such claims. Whatever the reality could be, fact remains that Zakir Naik was in Qatar during the FIFA time. He gave sermons to many till he was there and was seen on the ground too.
Does that make sense to us Indians? While the left and the right fight with each other, while the governments and the oppositions fight in the states and while we country people are busy managing our trivial altercations, there are people who are all fooling us, plotting against us and watching our collapse. It is high time we start looking at bigger issues and invest our intelligence in saving our country from these terror mongers.
The fugitive preacher Zakir Naik said that the majority of Hindus in India adore him when he presented his first lecture, “The Quran is a Global Necessity,” in Oman.
“The issue is that I’m quite popular among Hindus in India. They adore me to such an extent that the vote bank is suffering as a result. When I give presentations and have meetings in India, there are hundreds of thousands of people—between 50 and 100 million—especially in Bihar and Kishanganj. Of them, 20% are non-Muslims, according to Zakir Naik. “When they talk to me they tell Zakir Bhai what we learned in the last two hours (in his lecture), we have not learnt after 40 hours of lectures on our religion,” the Islamic preacher added. Speaking at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre which also marks the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Naik compared how a “Sikh judge” Manmohan Singh said he found nothing “objectionable” in his comments while the ED was attempting to attach his properties in 2018. In January 2018, Judge Manmohan Singh, who presided over the Appellate Tribunal for the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in New Delhi, stopped the ED from seizing Naik’s properties, drawing a similarity between Naik and self-styled spiritual guru Asaram Bapu. “Alhamdulillah, when a judge in the Indian court said, (when they wanted to attach all my properties) the judge was a Sikh, Manmohan Singh. Fortunately, he had seen many of my talks. He said, to the lawyer of the government, you point out one statement of Dr Zakir Naik, in context, in any lecture where he promotes terrorism, I will attach all his property,” Zakir Naik added.
“I can name 10 Babas who have properties worth more than Re 10,000 crore each and they are facing criminal cases. Have you acted against even one of them? What have you done against Asaram Bapu?” Singh asked the counsel for the ED. According to footage shared on social media, during his lecture in Muscat, Zakir Nair converted an Indian Hindu woman to Islam, read some Quranic verses to her, and requested her to repeat them. By the way, this happened on 23rd March 2023. He continues to strongly spread hatred and chaos amongst people.
What are we waiting for? Why aren’t we getting this person arrested? Why are we allowing him to profess his versions and create rifts in our system? When is the Ministry of External Affairs going to Act? This one person is a university of terrorism and we are allowing many people to enrol on it because we are not able to shut it down. We are one of the most powerful nations and we should lay our rules now. It’s one of the major issues that Modi Ji needs to put on his priority list. We have a great standing internationally now because of the efforts of our Honourable Prime Minister. This is the basis of our hope that we can soon stop this hatred professor from ruining the world further.
Great teachers talk about patience and self-growth, not conversion. Sane Intelligent Muslims should know this and boycott him for spreading hate and preaching the Quran wrongly. When Quran does not profess hatred, why is Zakir Naik doing it ?
