India: This Islamic preacher might have influenced one of the Dhaka terrorists

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Unlike the traditional religious clerics, the bespectacled, bearded and frail Naik wears a Western suit, and gives his religious discourses in English.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz presenting Zakir Naik with the
2015 King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam (KFF)

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: The Washington Post
By Rama Lakshmi | July 6, 2016

One of the terrorists in the deadly Dhaka restaurant attack last week had posted a Facebook message quoting the sayings of the controversial Mumbai-based Islamic preacher Zakir Naik urging “all Muslims to be terrorists.”

Now, many Indians are calling for a ban on Naik’s group, the Islamic Research Foundation for spreading ideas that inspire terrorism.

Rohan Imtiaz, 22, had quoted Naik before disappearing in January this year.

Naik has been banned from public speaking in the United Kingdom, Canada and Malaysia, but he is immensely popular in India. A medical doctor-turned-TV preacher, Naik has more than 100 million viewers, and has been called the “rock star of tele-evangelism” and a proponent of modern Islam.

Unlike the traditional religious clerics, the bespectacled, bearded and frail Naik wears a Western suit, and gives his religious discourses in English. After giving up his medical practice, Naik set up his foundation in 1991 in Mumbai.

But many say that the controversial cleric twists Islamic teachings to incite hate.

One of his most controversial remarks on TV was about Osama Bin Laden. He said: “If he is fighting enemies of Islam, I am for him. I don’t know him personally. If he terrorizing America, the biggest terrorist, I am with him. Every Muslim should be a terrorist. The thing is that if he is terrorizing a terrorist, he is following Islam.”

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