Zakir Naik facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Zakir Naik
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Naik in the Maldives, 2010
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Zakir Abdul Karim Naik
18 October 1965 Bombay, Maharashtra, India
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| Citizenship | India |
| Alma mater | University of Mumbai (MBBS) |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1991–present |
| Known for | Dawah |
| Title |
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| Board member of | Islamic Research Foundation, Islamic International School and United Islamic Aid |
| Spouse(s) | Farhat Naik |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards |
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| YouTube information | |
| Years active | 2011–present |
| Genre | |
| Subscribers | 3.84 million |
| Total views | 268 million |
| Associated acts | Huda TV |
| Subscriber and view counts updated as of 20 April 2024. | |
Zakir Abdul Karim Naik (born 18 October 1965) is an Indian Islamic public orator who focuses on comparative religion. Naik is currently a wanted fugitive in India, where, in 2016, the authorities charged Naik for money laundering while he was abroad in Malaysia; Naik did not return to India and became a permanent resident of Malaysia. Naik denies all charges. The National Investigation Agency attempted to issue an Interpol red notice for his arrest, which was refused due to insufficient evidence.
He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and Peace TV. He is a well-known figure in the Islamic world, and while he does not claim to be a follower of any one school of thought in Islam, he is most closely associated with the Salafi school of thought. Naik's Peace TV is banned in India, Bangladesh, Canada, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom under hate speech laws.
Early life and education
Zakir Naik was born on 18 October 1965 to Abdul Karim Naik and Roshan Naik in Bombay, India. He attended Kishinchand Chellaram College and studied medicine at the Topiwala National Medical College & BYL Nair Charitable Hospital and later the University of Mumbai, where he obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS).
Career
In 1991, he started working in the field of dawah and founded the Islamic International School in Mumbai and the United Islamic Aid, which provides scholarships to poor and destitute Muslim youth. Naik's wife, Farhat Naik, is the president of the women's section of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF). He established United Islamic Aid, which provides scholarship to poor and destitute Muslim youth.
Naik said in 2006 that he was inspired by Ahmed Deedat, an Islamic preacher whom he met in 1987. (Naik is sometimes referred to as "Deedat plus", a label given to him by Deedat.)
On 21 January 2006, the Islamic Research Foundation, which Naik heads, founded Peace TV. It is a non-profit Emirati satellite television network that broadcasts free-to-air programming. It is one of the world's largest religious satellite television networks.
In the second half of March 2021, Naik launched Al Hidaayah, which provides educational content about Islam. The platform has thousands of hours of videos of more than 40 renowned Islamic speakers from all over the world including Ahmed Deedat, Yusuf Estes, Hussein Ye, and Bilal Philips. He claimed that this platform is a "halal" version of Netflix.
Lectures and debates
Unlike many Islamic preachers, his lectures are colloquial, given in English, not Urdu or Arabic, and he usually wears a suit and tie. Naik has held many debates and lectures and is said to "have delivered over 4000 lectures around the world" as of 2016. Anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen has written that Naik's style of memorising the Quran and Hadith literature in various languages, and his related missionary activity, has made him extremely popular in Muslim circles. Many of his debates are recorded and widely distributed in video and DVD media and online. His talks have been recorded in English and broadcast on weekends on several cable networks in Mumbai's Muslim neighbourhoods, and on the Peace TV channel, which he co-produces. Topics he speaks on include: "Islam and Modern Science", "Islam and Christianity", and "Islam and secularism".
His first debate was in 1994, a debate on the views of writer Taslima Nasreen on Islam in her book Lajja, organised at the "Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh", entitled "Is Religious Fundamentalism a Stumbling block to Freedom of Expression?". With the presence of four journalists, the debate went on for hours. In April 2000, Naik debated with William Campbell in Chicago on the topic of "The Qur'an and the Bible: In the Light of Science", one of his most-cited debates. On 21 January 2006 Naik held an inter-religious dialogue with Ravi Shankar in Bangalore about the concept of God in Islam and Hinduism. In February 2011 Naik addressed the Oxford Union via video link from India.
University of Melbourne
In 2004 Naik, at the invitation of the Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia, made an appearance at the University of Melbourne, where he argued that only Islam gave women true equality. ..... Sushi Das of The Age commented that "Naik extolled the moral and spiritual superiority of Islam and lampooned other faiths and the West in general", further stating that Naik's words "fostered a spirit of separateness and reinforced prejudice".
St David's Hall
In August 2006, Naik's visit and conference in Cardiff caused controversy when Welsh conservative MP David Davies called for his appearance to be cancelled. He said Naik was a "hate-monger", and that his views did not deserve a public platform. Muslims from Cardiff, however, defended Naik's right to speak in the city. Saleem Kidwai, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Wales, stated that "people who know about him [Naik] know that he is one of the most uncontroversial persons you could find. He talks about the similarities between religions, and how should we work on the common ground between them", whilst also inviting Davies to discuss further with Naik personally in the conference. The conference went ahead after the Cardiff council stated it was satisfied that he would not be preaching extremist views.
Invitation to Gambia
In 2014, Naik visited Gambia at the invitation of President Yahya Jammeh to attend the grand celebration of Gambian revolution's 20th anniversary. There he delivered four lectures between 11 and 22 October. The lectures took place in University of the Gambia, Pancha Mi Hall of Paradise Suites Hotel, presidents home village Kanilai, Foni Kansala and Kairaba Beach Hotel, Kololi. Gambian cabinet ministers, religious leaders, students and thousands of people attended his lectures on subjects including "Terrorism and Jihad: an Islamic perspective", "religion in the right perspective", "Dawah or destruction?" and "the misconceptions about Islam". Meanwhile, he also met with the president Yahya Jammeh along with Gambia Supreme Islamic Council and held an Islamic conference with the Imams of Gambia.
Malaysia
Naik delivered four lectures in Malaysia during 2012. The lectures took place in Johor Bahru, Universiti Teknologi MARA in Shah Alam, Kuantan and Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur. The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, prominent figures and several thousand people attended the lectures at different places despite protest by the members of HINDRAF. The organisers of Naik's speeches said their purpose was to promote harmony among people of various religions.
Naik delivered another six lectures in April 2016. Two of his lectures in Malaysia, entitled "Similarities between Hinduism and Islam" and "Is the Quran God's word?" were objected by HINDRAF, along with other NGOs, saying that these lectures might provoke inter-racial tensions. With the initial support of the Government authority, the event went ahead as planned.
Naik delivered a speech on Islamophobia on 9 August 2019 at the Sultan Mohammad IV Stadium, Kota Bharu, Kelantan which was attended by more than 100,000 people.
Views
Zakir Naik does not claim to be an adherent of a particular school of thought in Islam. Despite his denials, some people believe his views and ideology are similar to Salafis.
Naik says that his goal is to "concentrate on the educated Muslim youth who have become apologetic about their own religion and have started to feel the religion is outdated". He considers it a duty of every Muslim to remove perceived misconceptions about Islam and to counter what he views as the Western media's anti-Islamic bias in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. Naik has said that "despite the strident anti-Islam campaign, 34,000 Americans have embraced Islam from September 2001 to July 2002". According to Naik, Islam is a religion of reason and logic, and the Quran contains 1000 verses relating to science, which he says explains the number of Western converts. Some of his articles are published in magazines such as Islamic Voice.
Supremacy of Islam
Naik said that Islam is the "best" religion because "The Quran says it. No other religious text or scripture claims this fact." .....
Social issues
Naik equated music with alcohol and stated that both are intoxicating in nature. He has opposed dancing and singing, claiming that they are forbidden in Islam.
Naik said that guilty people must be punished and accepts chopping off hands for stealing. He has also recommended that the United States implements this logic in order to reduce its high crime rate.
..... Naik says that in accordance with the Quran and sunnah, he recommends the death penalty for homosexuals that committed the act publicly.
Biological evolution
Denying evolution, Naik said that the theory of evolution is "only a hypothesis, and an unproven conjecture at best". According to Naik, most scientists "support the theory, because it went against the Bible – not because it was true." Naik also denies that different hominids have missing links, and claims that the majority of scientists do not accept evolution as a whole. Naik argues that scientific theories were prophesied by the Quran. For example, he has stated in 2010 that certain verses of the Quran accurately describe embryological development.
Naik argued, "What Darwin said was only a 'theory'. There is no book saying 'the Fact of Evolution' – All the books say Theory of Evolution." He further added, "There is not a single statement in the Qur'an, which Science has proved wrong yet. Hypothesis goes against the Qur'an – theories go against the Qur'an. There is not a single scientific fact, which is mentioned in the Holy Qur'an which goes against established science – It may go against theory."
Other religions
Apostasy
Naik believes that Muslims who convert from Islam should not necessarily receive death sentences, but that under Islamic law those who leave Islam and then "propagate the non-Islamic faith and speak against Islam" should be put to death. Another source states that according to Naik, "There is no death penalty for apostates in Islam... until the apostate starts to preach his new religion: then he can be put to death."
Propagation of other faiths in Islamic states
While he appreciates that people of other religions allow Muslims to freely propagate Islam in their country, Naik preaches that the dissemination of other religions within an Islamic state must be forbidden because he believes that other faiths are incorrect, so their propagation is as wrong as it would be for an arithmetic teacher to teach that 2+2=3 or 6 instead of 2+2=4.
Naik criticises the activities of Christian missionaries in the Muslim world saying, "the missionaries write verses of the Bible in Arabic calligraphy, such as 'God is love' to catch fish with the Muslims. We in Peace TV, for example, do not use such deceit."
Views on terrorism
Later in 2010, Naik said that he had been quoted out of context regarding the remarks on terrorism. "As far as terrorist is concerned", he said, "I tell the Muslims that every Muslim should be a terrorist... What is the meaning of the word terrorist? Terrorist by definition means a person who terrorises. So in this context every Muslim should be a terrorist to each and every anti-social element. I'm aware that terrorist is more commonly used for a person who terrorises innocent human beings. So in this context no Muslim should ever terrorise a single innocent human being."
Naik has been at the center of multiple controversies regarding the topic of terrorism, most notably for being seen as an inspiration for terrorists. In 1996, Naik gave a speech specifically about terrorism and addressing Osama bin Laden. Naik stated that "Every Muslim should be a terrorist. The thing is that if he [Osama] is terrorizing the terrorist, then he is following Islam." Perhaps the most controversial part about his speech was that he called America "the biggest terrorist". In a separate speech, he states that "the western countries say war for peace, war for peace. It is not war for peace, it is war on peace". Naik's comments received significant media attention and the British government banned him on the basis of these comments. Naik's lawyer and IRF argued that the speech was made before 9/11, that media misquoted Naik and made misleading assertions about the timing of Naik's speech, and that the decision to ban Naik from the UK was "politically motivated".
Naik stated that Hitler, "who was not a Muslim, is the biggest terrorist in the world as he incinerated four to six million Jews."
When asked about his views on killings, Naik said "the Quran says so – if anyone kills an innocent human being, Muslim or non-Muslim, it is as though he has killed the whole humanity, So how can any Muslim kill innocent human beings?" It was only permissible, he said, to kill a person who "has killed someone else... or created corruption in the land." He also criticized the media for "picking up verses of the Quran or hadiths and quoting them out of context to mislabel Islam as a religion that promotes violence and killing". He said that "critics of Islam quotes Verse 5/9 which reads: 'Wherever you find a non-Muslim, kill him' out of context to malign Islam though it was an order in a battlefield, and Islam always promotes peace as a better option during war." .....
Najibullah Zazi
Najibullah Zazi, the Afghan-American linked to Al-Qaeda who was found guilty in the 2009 New York City Subway and United Kingdom plot was an "admirer" of Naik's sermons. When Time hinted that his preachings could have inspired Najibullah Zazi's terrorist activities, Naik insisted: "I have always condemned terrorism, because according to the glorious Koran, if you kill one innocent person, then you have killed the whole of humanity."
ISIS
Naik called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria the "anti-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" and said that the enemies of Islam were promoting ISIS. He also added, "We should not say ISIS, we should say AISIS. Because they are anti-Islamic. I request all the Muslims of the world, as well as the Muslim media: Please don't help the enemies of Islam in attacking Islam." He further added, "If you verify you will know that I am totally against terrorism. I am totally against killing any innocent human being." In another lecture in Dubai, he stated, It is, therefore not correct to say ISIS or Islamic State has killed Syrian or Iraqi innocents. He said, "We should say anti-Islamic state kills them as Quran affirms that whoever kills an innocent person is as if he kills all humanity, and he who saves a single person – disregard his religion, is like saving all humanity."
Orlando shooting
Zakir criticized the media for "linking Islam" with the Orlando nightclub shooting. He accused the media of a "double-standard strategy" saying, "the same [double-standard strategy] is happening with a man related by nothing to Islam but by his name who killed over 50 gays in Orlando."
Politics
Naik criticized the partition of India and creation of Pakistan, calling it a tragedy. Naik holds that those who advocated the creation of Pakistan out of the northwestern provinces of colonial India were "not even practising Muslims".
In 2016, Naik praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his frequent visits to Muslim majority countries, commenting "if his intention is to maintain unity between Hindus and Muslims and between India and other Muslim countries, I am totally for him". He described Modi's visits as favourable for India, believing it could attract foreign investment. In 2019, in an interview in Week magazine, Naik strongly criticized Modi and the BJP for what he called false charges and propaganda against him for political purposes, and said that he is targeted for his popularity. He stated that he would not return to India while Modi remained in power, drawing parallels with the example of Muhammad in Hijrah. He also described Modi and the BJP as dangerous for Indian Muslims' security, labelling Modi a "liar" and the "number one terrorist of India according to Google." He also invited Modi to take part in a debate with him about Hinduism.
Naik claimed on 11 January 2020 that the Modi government approached him in September 2019 through an envoy and offered to provide him "safe passage" to India if he spoke in support of the government's move to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. In a 14 January 2020 tweet, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh asked Modi to clarify Naik's claim of an offer of safe passage to India.
During a lecture held on 8 August 2019 in Kota Bharu, Kelantan state, Malaysia, Naik was asked about his response to right-wing Malaysian groups wanting Zakir Naik to be extradited out of Malaysia.
He replied, "Malaysia became fully Muslim. Then you had the Chinese coming, you had the Indians coming, the British coming. They are our new guests. You know, somebody called me a 'guest'. So I said before me [Naik is Indian] that the Chinese are the guest. They aren't born here. So if you want the new guest to go, first ask the old guest to go back."
In the same lecture, he also claimed that Hindus living in Malaysia had "100 times more rights" than the Muslim minority in India, and were more loyal to Indian PM Narendra Modi than to Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad. These comments sparked outrage across Malaysian society, being perceived as inciting racial and religious hatred and disrupting the peace and harmony between communities. By 15 August, four government ministers called for revocation of Zakir Naik's permanent residency and for him to be extradited to India. Citizens lodged a total of 115 police complaints against Naik.
On 16 August, Naik was questioned for about seven hours by the Royal Malaysia Police at Bukit Aman in Kuala Lumpur about his controversial statements, while PM Mahathir said that "If he is found to be doing detrimental things to the country, it will be necessary for us to take away his permanent resident status. And that case, of course, we may need to take action to prevent him from making such provocative speeches, which attempt to pit the different races against each other," adding that a public apology by Naik may not be "enough to assuage the anger of many people". Meanwhile, Sarawak, the largest state of Malaysia, banned Zakir Naik from entering the state on 15 August, while the state of Perlis barred him henceforth from speaking at public events on 16 August, followed by the state of Kedah on 17 August; Naik was scheduled to speak in both states. By 20 August, Sabah, Malacca, Penang and Selangor had joined the other three states in prohibiting Naik from speaking in public, thus barring him in 7 out of 13 Malaysian states. After another 10 hour-round of police hearings on 19 August, Free Malaysia Today reported that on 20 August the police had imposed a nationwide speaking ban on Zakir Naik, which the police confirmed to the Malay Mail.
By 19 August, Zakir Naik had had his lawyers file legal complaints against five Malaysian politicians for 'defamation', claiming that they had taken his statements out of context and thus unduly damaged his reputation. The next day he maintained that his statements had been taken out of context, but expressed 'heartfelt apologies for this misunderstanding', as it 'was never my intention to upset any individual or community.' The Indian PM Modi had criticized Naik's comments during a dialogue with Mahathir at the Eastern Economic Forum in September.
See also
In Spanish: Zakir Naik para niños
