New Delhi:
As the government scrutinizes the televised and online sermons of controversial preacher Dr Zakir Naik, accused of inspiring last week’s killing of 20 hostages in Bangladesh, the Centre has made it clear that the broadcasting of unlicensed channels will be urgently checked and penalized.
Dr Naik’s TV channel, Peace TV, broadcasts out of Dubai and is banned in India but is shown by some cable TV operators, who, according to sources, download the content and then air it for subscribers. 24 channels, 11 of them Pakistani, are illicitly made available in different parts of the country, said sources in the Intelligence Bureau, underscoring that they have been flagging this content as dangerous propaganda in recent years.
Some of these sermons are also available on platforms like YouTube who have been asked to remove them quickly, said sources.
The Bangladesh government has said that Dr Naik’s speeches inspired some of the seven young men who burst into a Dhaka cafe and hacked foreigners to death.
Dr Naik, who has been in Mecca on a religious trip this week, has in a WhatsApped video statement said he cannot be blamed for the terror strike.
But the Centre has top investigators reviewing speeches of his CDs now to determine if he tacitly or otherwise urged acts of terror. The 50-year-old televangelist is banned from entering the UK and Canada.
Venkaiah Naidu, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, met with top officers from his own department along with members of the Home Ministry and intelligence agencies today. It was decided that “district monitoring committees” in different regions will “monitor and stop unauthorized channels” and will be empowered to stop the telecast of this content. “the equipment of those airing the content will be seized,” said Junior Broadcasting Minister Rajavardhan Rathore. However, intelligence officers at the meeting said that similar committees in the past have been “futile” and failed to take action.
Separately, the Maharashtra government is looking not just at Dr Naik’s speeches but at his writings as well as the sources of funds for his Islamic Research Foundation ,which describes itself as a non-profitable organization.
In the WhatsApped video distributed by his organization, Dr Naik claims that though he is wildly popular in Bangladesh – “more than 90 per cent Bangladeshis know me, more than 50 per cent are my fans,” he says in the video – “I disagree that I inspired this act of killing innocent people.”
Categories: India, The Muslim Times
I URGE DR ZAKIR NAIK :
1. Stop judging and insulting other religions in public place.
2. Declare and reject all violent Hadith, if you do not reject, it means you agree with violent Hadith.
Dr Zakir Naik, I would like to bring it to your attention that some people are referring to a part of your lecture that you gave a long time ago to link you with the recent events that took place in Dhaka. They are saying that you inspired these people to become terrorists with your talk. The link to the video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxk5AAA5FbI
Extremist Muslim use the book of Hadith to justify their action to kill innocent people. Imam Muslim and Bukhari commanded to kill people such as:
1. Blashphemy
2. Gay lesbian
3. Apostate
4. Those who do not pledge to Caliphat of ISIS. Those who kill blashphamer will die in Sahid and will enter paradise.
Allah said: Those who kill a innocent people as if he kill whole mankind. Those who believe in Imam MUSLIM BUKHARI than Allah alone will fall into sinful Syrik.-
We are sick and tired of the killings of young men and women in our community. It’s up to us to take a stand and demand that they ‘stop killing us.
I’m looking forward to your reply regarding your talk in this video! Thank you!
All love
We are sick and tired of the killings of children, young men and women in our community. It’s up to us to take a stand and demand that they ‘stop killing us.
I am tired of uneducated radical bigots making blanket statements in the name of Islam…. Zakir Naik is not a spokesperson for muslims.. He does not have any formal education/ no religious guidance, he has not attended any hawzah’a, or seminaries. He is an anti semite, anti alawai, as well as anti shia. He is an obvious Wahabbi fundamentalist in sheep’s skin.
Zakir Naik is a Wahhabi stooge, that is why he received awards and money from ………….(guesswho)
Well said brother Zakaria Virk.
The way Zakir Naik makes his speeches would not enamour him to people who do not subscribe to his version of Islam.
In fact, he provokes them and very few would want to follow his version of Islam after hearing him. He is very antagonistic in his speeches.
And yes, brother Zakaria Virk is right about where he gets his funding from…. Wahhabi in the extreme!!!