Zakir Naik

Interfaith Dialogue

Image source: maapu

Image license: CC BY 2.0

Year of Birth

1965

Nationality

IN

Field of Knowledge

Religion


Twitter

@zakirnaikirf

Zakir Abdul Karim Naik (Arabic: ذاكر عبد الكريم نايك‎; born 18 October 1965) is an Indian Islamic televangelist and preacher. He is currently a criminal absconder in charges related to funding terror activities, hate speech, inciting communal hatred, and money laundering. He fled from India in 2016 and is a fugitive wanted for questioning in India. He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and Peace TV.Before becoming a public speaker, he trained as a physician. He has published booklet versions of lectures on Islam and comparative religion. Although he has publicly disclaimed sectarianism in Islam, he is regarded as an exponent of the Salafi ideology, and by many sources as a radical Islamist promoting Wahhabism. His preaching is currently banned in India, Bangladesh, Canada, the United Kingdom and Malaysia, under anti-terrorism or anti-hate laws. His TV channel Peace TV is banned in his native India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Following action by Ofcom in 2019, Peace TV surrendered its licence to broadcast in the UK. In April 2020, the Charity Commission for England and Wales opened a statutory enquiry into the registered charity Islamic Research Foundation, which has funded Peace TV.Zakir Naik’s understanding, interpretation and knowledge of Islam has been criticised by many leading Islamic scholars like Asjad Raza Qadri, head cleric of Bareilly; Shia Muslim cleric Kalbe Jawad Naqvi Shahi Imam of Bengal Syed Mohammad Nurur Rahman Barkati etc as “false, malicious, misleading, extremist and misogynist by misinterpreting the Quran and misleading Muslims. The Darul Uloom Deoband, the seat of the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam, which is headquartered in Deoband in Uttar Pradesh has issued a series of fatwas against Zakir Naik condemning his preaching and “misguiding simple Muslims to wrong path.”

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