Dr Zakir Naik, the Islamic Scholar, who is at the centre of a controversy after reports emerged that attacker of the Dhaka terror were inspired by him, has clearly denied this and said that the term Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is “un-Islamic”.
The former medical doctor and an self proclaimed intellectual Dr Naik condemned the Dhaka attack by saying that he was surprised to know that the perpetrators even knew him.
He also claimed the Dhaka attackers reportedly being inspired by his preachings, were a surprise to him.
Naik, was speaking over the phone from Mecca. The Mumbai based researcher and founder of Islamic Research founder, Dr. Naik admitted the fact that he has 14 million followers on Facebook.
Besides there are 200 million viewers of his Peace TV in multiple languages, including Urdu, Bengali and Chinese who belong to Bangladesh but that has no links with the recent terror attacks. He was also quoted saying that,
“By using the name Islamic State, we are condemning Islam… They are the anti-Islamic state of Iraq and Syria that has killed innocent foreigners. The name is given by enemies of Islam.”
According to the report he also said that he preaches Islam but never endoresd the methods forcefully to anyone. There are his followers who are non- Muslims too, he claims. He said people come to Islam but will not come to the religion by force.
Dr. Naik insisted that there are people who kill or misguide others in name of Islam. They may be hard core fans of on the preachings of Prophet Mohammad. He also said,
“Such a person would be a hardcore fan of Prophet Muhammad. Does that mean Prophet Muhammad told him to kill people?” Naik asked, adding that the Quran explicitly states that when a person kills another, of any religion, “it is as though he has killed the whole of humanity”.
Report also said that, Dr. Naik has courted controversy several times in the past, including in 2010 when the Conservative British government revoked his visa and barred him from entering Britain.
However on Osama Bin Laden he was reluctant to comment, Other terror suspects who were reportedly fans of Naik include Afghan-American Najibulla Zazi, who was arrested in 2009 for an alleged conspiracy to bomb the New York subway, Dr Kafeel Ahmed who stormed Glasgow airport in an explosives-laden car in 2007, and Mumbai’s Rahil Sheikh, arrested for the 7/11 serial train blasts.
Dr. Naik denied the fact that investigators in any terror cases have approached him, Naik claimed that Indian intelligence agencies too have not given any negative or adverse verdict pertaining to his conduct.
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