Attacks On Dr Zakir Naik Were Well Orchestrated

Dr Zakir in a car in Malaysia

As the burden of age grew on our father, Ahmed Deedat, Allah was nurturing a handsome replacement , the young Zakir Naik. The fame of Zakir Naik grew across the globe
among Muslims and non Muslims alike when he began to display qualities and abilities that had not been seen in anyone in the modern era; Sheikh Ahmed Deedat had to nickname him ‘Deedat plus’.

It might not be a mistake if one says the sharp rise in the Muslim population of the West is linked to the da’wah efforts of Dr Zakir Naik. Thanks to Dr Zakir, a lot of those who have not embraced Islam now have high regard for Islam and even those who have remained Islamophobes now think twice before they make their baseless allegations.

On 1st July 2016, a bomb blast in Bangladesh killed 29 people and injured 40 others. According to the Bangladeshi government, one of the attackers, Rohan Imtiaz, claimed to have been inspired by lectures of Dr Zakir. 

That was all the Hindu nationalist government of India needed to blow out the light of da’wah in the country. The government of Narendra Modi immediately blamed the attacks on Dr Zakir and unfortunately, the ‘Muslim’ government of Bangladesh became an accomplice in labelling Dr Zakir a ‘terrorist’. 

The great da’ee had to flee India to Malaysia and was not even able to attend the funeral of his father, Abdul Karim Naik, who passed away on 30th October 2016. 

Muslims have asked, why should a man be declared violent simply because a violent person claimed to have learnt the act of violence from him.

According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation report released in November 2016, the number of attacks on mosques and other hate crimes against Muslims in 2015 was higher than at any other time except the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. 

In 2015, there were 257 anti-Muslim incidents, up from 154 in 2014. This represents a 67% increase ever since Donald Trump came into the political sphere in America. From records, Donald Trump has never been summoned to terror charges. 

Theory has it that the Dhaka bomber was used to frame Dr Zakir. If Dr Zakir  was truly his hero as he claimed, why would he say things capable of implicating him and endangering his life?

There are clear reasons as to why the Indian government would want to frame Dr Zakir Naik. For those who are oblivious of them, here they are.

Dawah Reach

Dr Zakir Naik was reaching communities that no one ever imagined. The most devout of Hindus were getting to hear the message of Islam for the first time in their lives. Dr Zakir posed questions that made the Hindu community really begin to question their beliefs. 

A number of them have embraced Islam and passed on the message to others. Even those who have not embraced Islam have come to see the sophistication and superiority of the Islamic texts. 

If this continued, Islam and/or Islamic thought would take over India and surrounding nations in a matter of a few decades and the Hindu imperialist politicians will lose ground.

Growing Empire

Dr Zakir Naik constantly grew in fame, statue and material influence. The Islamic TV station owned by Dr Zakir’s Islamic Research Foundation, Peace TV, became the most viewed cable TV in the world reaching 200 million viewers in 2013. That came with great financial growth. 

In 2013, Dr Zakir’s Peace TV launched a mobile phone manufactured by Samsung called the Peace Mobile Phone. Within a couple of years, it would have become the most purchased mobile phone in the world pushing the likes of iPhone, Nokia, Techno, etc underground. 

That would have brought Dr Zakir into the class of the wealthiest men in the world. Imagine what would have been achieved if Dr Zakir channeled all that financial power into da’wah within and outside India. With India regarded as the poverty capital of the world at that time, millions of poverty induced ignorance into the light of Islam. 

Dr Zakir’s fame was so high among Muslims that he would have possessed the Midas touch. Any retail store, travel agency, clothing line or any other company carrying any name or title related to Dr Zakir would have been a hit. 

A great chunk of the traffic going to big companies like Amazon, Versace and the likes would have gone to an Islamic personality who is bent on propagating Islam. India and her economic allies had to do something fast to put an end to it.

National Hindu Agenda

The Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi has made a number of moves that have met little or no resistance; some of them have dealt a blow to morality as a whole and some others have been directly aimed at Muslims in India. 

In 2018, the Indian government began to raise dust about ‘triple talaq’ and the bill was signed into law despite provisions in the constitution prohibiting government interference in the religious affairs of the citizens. 

As has also been observed, there has been a growing rate of vicious attacks against Muslims in India. This trend has only gotten an insouciant response from the Hindu government. This makes it quite probable that the attacks happen with strong government backing. 

An individual with a strong reputation among Indian Muslims like Dr Zakir would have been able to more efficiently draw the world’s attention to atrocities being perpetrated  by the government and its cronies.  On 6th September 2018, the Indian government legalized gay marriage, and then on 27th September on the same year, adultery was decriminalized. 

Hindus hated the moves but were unable to protest out of fear of being labeled enemies of the Hindu government. To some others, speaking against the moves would dent the image of the government which would twat their Islamophobic agenda. 

Dr Zakir would have been able to win the common Hindus over by proving to them that if they really cared about morality then, they would have to see Islam as the only solution since even the government that claims to have been established on Hindu principles is doing its damnedest to legitimize perversion.

Unity Of Muslims

Dr Zakir Naik has always been an ardent critic of sectarianism, he is known with the mantra, "There is no Sunni and Shia in the Qur'an". 

Followers of Dr Zakir are very less likely to identify with sects, mostly describing themselves simply as 'Muslims'. 

The death of sectarianism and the unity of the Muslims of India and the world at large would pose a threat to the Indian government and other governments with Islamophobic dispositions.

Dr Zakir Naik is current living in forced exile in Malaysia. The Indian government has made several calls to the Malaysian government to extradite him but all have been declined. 

On 10th June, Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammed, told pressmen when he was asked about India’s extradition pleas, “Zakir in general feels that he is not going to get a fair trial (in India)”. 

Though statements by the Malaysian government on Dr Zakir have been getting increasingly hostile, he has continued to enjoy the support of powerful figures in the Malaysian government. 

On 31st July, Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammed said when asked about Dr Zakir Naik's residency, "We have a multi-racial, multi-religious population in Malaysia. We don't want anybody who comes up and expresses extreme views about race relations and other religions. But on the other hand, it is difficult to send him anywhere else because many countries do not want to have him."

We pray for Allah’s protection over Dr Zakir Abdul Kareem Naik and his family and may Allah have Mercy on the soul of his father, Dr Abdul Kareem Naik.