Read original article by Saif Khalid on Al Jazeera or read some of they key points below;
- “He has 16 million followers on Facebook, 150,000 on Twitter and has given more than 4,000 lectures on Islam across the world. But Zakir Abdul Karim Naik, the popular televangelist and Islamic preacher, is now wanted by the Indian authorities.”
- “Problems arose for the preacher last summer, after Bangladeshi authorities said that one of the gunmen responsible for an attack on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, which left 22 people dead, had been inspired by him. Bangladesh responded by banning Peace TV, an Islamic channel broadcast from Dubai which Naik founded in 2006 and which claims to reach 100 million people worldwide.”
- “The 51-year-old denied supporting violence, releasing a video statement in which he said: “Killing innocent beings is the second major sin in Islam.”
- “The Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded by imposing a five-year ban on the Mumbai-based non-profit Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) under the country’s anti-terror laws.”
- Naik has not returned to India since last July. His whereabouts are currently not known, there have been rumours that he has been granted Saudi citizenship, but there has been no official confirmation of this.
- “Naik’s view is shared by many within India’s Muslim community, members of which have come under attack from far-right Hindu groups associated with Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).”
