Zakir Naik : The mentor of Terrorism

The ‘Mentor of Terror’ who is infamous globally originally belongs to Mumbai, that’s the reason Zakir is in the news recently all over India. There was a time when Zakir used to run his preaching business from the small room in the by lanes of Dongri area in Mumbai. There, through his discourse he used to convince people that Muslim religion is the greatest. This area of Dongri was earlier a home for dangerous gangsters. Gangsters like Haji Mastan, Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, Arun Gawli become world famous from Dongri itself. Coincidently Zakir Naik also hailing from Dongri is getting recognition all around the world like these gangsters.

Zakir’s family should be Interrogated

Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) office is still running in this area. Nowadays, a police van and a team of constables are deployed outside Zakir Naik’s office for 24 hours. But still, proceedings are going on smoothly inside the office. 50 employees working in this institute get payment on time. Apart from Zakir Naik, his brother Mohammed Naik, wife Farhat Naik handles the proceedings of the institute. Zakir Naik is making use of his family members to spread his venomous thoughts quickly & efficiently through Social Media.

A person becomes successful through good or a bad way because he has a strong base. Dr. Zakir Naik’s base is his preaching business in Mumbai. His family members are actively involved in taking care of this base. If Zakir Naik is deferring his return to India because of the police investigation, then the police should interrogate his family members. By interrogating them, police can easily get complete details about Zakir Naik. Police must have known it earlier and that is the reason police van & constables are deployed day-night outside Zakir’s Dongri office. According to Dainik Karnala’s sources police have got information that around 15 crores of foreign funds has been deposited in Zakir Naik’s foundation recently.  So now police should investigate whether Zakir Naik by his religious preaching abroad still transfers money to his foundation in India.

Around 5 years back there was a huge demand to take action on Zakir

Around 4 to 5 years back in Mumbai, there was a growing demand to interrogate Zakir Naik. Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) had made this demand. In the year 2013, during Ganesh Utsav festival Zakir Naik had insulted Lord Ganesha by saying that “God who cannot protect himself, how can he protect others?” For this purpose, he gave reference to a mythological incident when Lord Shiva cut off the head of Lord Ganesha. He also said that “If you prove that your God exists only then I will eat Prasad”. During that time Zakir Naik was criticized severely. A case was also filed against Zakir Naik for hurting religious sentiments at Kurla Police Station in Mumbai and also at Thane, Vengurla & Sawantwadi police stations under Section 253A. Zakir fearing arrest approached Mumbai High Court and temporarily got out of this case.

Cases were filed against Zakir Naik in various areas of Konkan for using offensive language against Lord Ganesha & Ganesh Utsav in general. Police called Zakir Naik for questioning but Zakir Naik was afraid to go to Konkan.

Peace TV, a channel promoting Dr. Zakir Naik’s venomous speeches is been telecasted all over India without proper permission. Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) has revealed that there is an active independent system to gather the audience to watch his channel. A demand to ban Peace TV was also raised in Vidhan Sabha & Vidhan Parishad. But unfortunately, Congress-NCP Govt. which was in power at that time neglected the demand. Today talks are in full flow to ban the same Peace TV channel.

Avoidance by UPA Govt. to take action against Zakir Naik

Satyapal Singh Mumbai’s former Police Commissioner & BJP’s current Member of Parliament made a shocking revelation that in 2008 he had presented a report against Zakir Naik to UPA Govt. which was in power in both State & Centre. However, Govt. suppressed that report. Zakir Naik uses the foreign funds for religious conversion & also his inflammatory speeches increases religious rift and are dangerous for the unity of the country stated Satyapal Singh in his report. Dr. Singh also demanded that there should be a ban on Zakir Naik’s Peace TV & foreign funds given to support his institution should also be stopped. Singh also said that if there had been a proper action on Zakir Naik as per the reports than most of his anti-national activities could have been curbed at that time.  However, Congress Govt. totally neglected the report & the worst part is that talks are going on today on the same issue.

Nine Teams to Investigate Zakir Naik

A detailed investigation of Zakir Naik’s activities has been started by the defense team at the National level. Nine teams have been created for this purpose. Three teams out of these are investigating the matter of religious conversion & use of foreign funds by the foundation.  Four teams are investigating Zakir Naik’s speeches in his institute and on Social Media.  Remaining two teams are investigating the foreign funds and the sources behind it. Indian defense system is of the opinion that Zakir Naik is himself not a Terrorist but is very dangerous for Islam.

In a recent terrorist attack in Dhaka, out of nine terrorists involved, two of them were influenced by Zakir Naik’s thoughts. Four Muslim youths from Kalyan who went to join Islamic State (ISIS) also took inspiration from Zakir Naik’s speeches. Out of these youths, Areeb Majeed who returned to India told police that he decided to join ISIS after listening to Zakir Naik’s speech.  Malvani’s Ayaz Sultan and other ‘Indian Mujahideen’ members were also influenced by Zakir Naik’s speeches. So Islamic terrorists both in India and abroad are influenced by Zakir Naik’s thoughts. The possibility arising is that Zakir Naik is undertaking his work only for terrorist organizations.

Action against Zakir Naik should not be a gimmick

Zakir Naik was going to hold a press conference in Mumbai on 12th July to provide an explanation about various allegations against him. However, just 2 weeks before this Indian Television Media made use of Zakir Naik to increase their TRP. However, it was overdone so much that Zakir Naik became scared and took a decision not to come to India. This is what is called Electronic Media’s exaggeration on a particular issue. A similar thing happened during 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Electronic media telecasted Army’s operation in Taj Mahal Hotel. Because of this terrorists came to know the whereabouts of Major Unnikrishnan and his colleague and therefore they were able to kill them easily. Media again made a big blunder when the major accused of 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai Yakub Memon was given a capital punishment. Indian electronic media televised his funeral after he has hanged till death. However, they did not telecast India’s former president APJ Abdul Kalam’s funeral which was conducted on the same day and at the same time. Instead of showing the last rites of one of India’s great APJ Abdul Kalam media was more interested in showing how many Muslims have gathered for Yakub’s funeral.

Prominent Muslim leaders like Abu Azmi & Owaisi have started supporting Zakir Naik. All these leaders should first clarify their stance on Zakir Naik’s relation with Hafiz Saeed’s Jamat-Ud-Dawa outfit, Zakir insulting Hindu Gods & Zakir’s open support for Terrorist Osama Bin Laden. Modi Government’s plan for a strict action on Zakir Naik should not turn out to be a gimmick because on the eve of elections in West Bengal & Tamil Nadu, Modi Govt. made Kanhaiya Kumar their main target to defeat Communists. Using Kanhaiya Kumar as a medium Modi Govt. tried to criticize the left-wing parties. After completion of elections in these states Kanhaiya Kumar is nowhere to be seen.  So the doubt arises that Modi Govt. itself created the hype around Kanhaiya Kumar. Similarly assembly elections are due in Uttar Pradesh in a year or so. The speculations are that whether Modi Govt. is using the name of Zakir Naik for their benefit in upcoming UP elections.

Source : Translation of Marathi article by Shri. Unmesh Gujarathi