Zakir Abdul Karim Naik

IslamPreacherPropagandistIslamic SupremacismWahhabism

Feb 2

EMAN website-03.jpg — **DOB:** 18 October 1965

**Nationality:** Indian

**Location:** Malaysia

**Ideology/Affiliation:** Islamic supremacism/Wahhabism

**Type of Leader:** Preacher/Propagandist/Influencer

Biography

Zakir Abdul Karim Naik is an Indian Islamic televangelist and preacher. He is currently an alleged criminal absconder in charges related to alleged 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, and is facing multiple charges in addition to being included on a list of most-wanted fugitives. His incitement charges include his role in influencing the 2016 Dhaka attackers in Bangladesh to carry out their terrorist attack.

In addition to being faced with charges of hate speech, he is also wanted in India on accusations pertaining to money laundering, where he reportedly acquired $28 million worth of criminal assets to purchase property in India and finance lectures where he made provocative speeches. Some critics however argue that India’s objective of extraditing Naik from Malaysia is also driven by a Hindu-nationalist agenda. He is currently residing in Malaysia, which offered him a permanent residency in 2017. He is the founder and president of the Dubai-based Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and Peace TV.

A medical doctor by profession, Naik’s website lists him as an international orator on Islam and comparative religion. Naik launched the Peace TV channel in English in 2006 - the largest watched religious satellite TV channel in the world, with over 200 million viewers as of 2016. Since the launch of the English channel, Naik launched the Peace TV in Urdu, Bangla, and Chinese in 2009, 2011, and 2015 respectively. In May 2020, Peace TV and Peace TV Urdu were both fined GBP300,000 by the UK’s media regulator for broadcasting hate speeches and incitement. The UK’s Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE), which was launched in 2018 following the 2017 London Bridge terrorist attacks cited PeaceTV as an example of Islamist extremism, but not sufficient to be labelled as a crime under current UK law.

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Evidence of Hate Speech/Incitement:

February 2017: Naik responded to a question asked by a female attendee at a lecture that Western societies sell their daughters in the name of western liberalism, and in the name of art and culture, and that it is nothing but a disguised form of exploitation of her body, degradation of her soul and deprivation of he honour while in Islam, mothers, daughters, sisters and wives are respected due to the hijab.

May 2010: Naik referred to Americans as “pigs” due to their consumption of pork, and further added that most people in American consume pork and act like pigs after dance parties - allowing other people to sleep with their wives just like pigs do.

July 2008: Zakir Naik stated that 9/11 was an inside job carried out by George Bush to provide a cassus belli for the U.S. to invade Muslim countries in an attempt to control energy resources. Although this is not considered hate speech, this is evidence of incitement towards militants who seek to travel to the Middle East to fight.

January 2008: Naik endorses the death penalty for apostates and those who leave Islam and propagate another religion, calling it treason, and likening it to an army general who betrays his country and provides secrets to an enemy nation - the punishment for which, according to most nations - is death.