Zakir Naik

Naik in 2010

Party Like It's 632 Islam

Turning towards Mecca

Iblis Female genital mutilation DAESH Hezbollah Hadith Fatwa Qur'anic scientific errors Ghazwa-e-Hind Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi Abu Bakar Bashir Quranism Islam v - t - e

Zakir Abdul Karim Naik (b. October 18, 1965) is fast-talking Indian Muslim charlatan and Islamic demagogue, and founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF). He has been implicated in the Dhaka Attack, money laundering schemes and is currently on the wanted list by Interpol and the Indian National Investigation Agency.

Naik is best known of his ability to fast-talk an audience dropping names (of non-existent persons) and pulling made up facts right out of his posterior to impress his gullible and mostly uneducated audience. In India he was known to have brought with him his own cheering squads from local mosques to applaud him so as to impress the rest of the non-Muslim attendees.

Life

Naik was born in Mumbai, India in 1965 to Abdul Karim Naik, a medical doctor and educator, and Pochamma Naik. He attended St. Peter's School, a coeducational Catholic parochial school in Mumbai. He went on to study at the Kishinchand Chellaram College, a junior and degree college, and at the Topiwala National Medical College, also in Mumbai. He interned at the Nair Hospital which is associated with the TNMC. He earned a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) from the University of Mumbai. He is married to Fariq Naik and has two children, Fariq and Rushdaa.

In 1987 Naik met Ahmed Deedat, an Islamic preacher who made an impression on Naik so much so that Naik went into the Dawah (proselytization) business himself in 1991. In 2006, Naik founded Peace TV, an all English satellite television network based in Dubai, UAE, which promotes Islam as the solution for all of humanity. He also founded the Islamic International Schools in Mumbai, Chennai and Dubai. The schools in India had operated under the aegis of the IRF which ran the schools. Since the IRF has been banned in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act these schools have been declared illegal.

Naik has claimed in the past to be an Islamic scholar and educated in comparative religion. Since several rulings against him by Islamic courts he has refrained from claiming scholarship in Islam.

Naik belongs to the Salafist branch of Islam.

Islamic rulings against Naik

Naik is known to misrepresent Islam to make it more palatable to a Western audience. This has not sat well with many Muslim councils. There have been about 50 fatwas issued by several Ulemas ( councils of Islamic scholars, the specialists in Islamic jurisprudence) condemning him as a kafir (unbeliever). The Darul Uloom (Hanafi) one of the most respected Ulema in Sunni Islam, issued a fiqh (an Islamic judicial ruling) against Naik, indicating that while they respect him as an apologist (daii) to the Western World, that no one who is a already a Muslim should give credence to what he has to say on matters concerning Islam as he is not an alim (scholar). Naik, not knowing Arabic, is unable to read source material like the Qur'an, ahadith, Sirat and tafsirs which are all in Arabic. His knowledge of the Qur'an is through phonetic memorization. Without knowledge of the Arabic he cannot attain source knowledge. For this reason he was rejected as a ghair muqallidin (someone who cannot read source material and has no knowledge of the four schools of Sunni Islam). Which leaves one wondering if it is appropriate to spread falsehood about how good Islam is in the Western World to make converts yet be unable to instruct Muslims with the same falsehoods.

Criminal investigation

He is wanted for questioning in India in relation to a pay for conversion scheme conducted by the IRF. The allegations are that IRF and Naik paid Rs. 50,000 (~ $775) to each of the converts to Islam which was paid for by Saudi Arabia. Paying for conversions is a criminal offence in India. He is also wanted as a person of interest in Bangladesh and in India in relation to the July 2016 Dhaka terror attack.

While originally claimed to have wanting to go to India, but claiming to be unable to do so due to scheduling conflicts, he has since dropped the pretense and has decided not to visit countries which might deport him back to India.

Claims made by Naik

• Naik believes that he can prove the existence of God through logical argument; but it requires a serious lack of critical thinking ability to be persuaded by him. One argument he made actually depended on the argument that "at the time when the Qur'an was revealed, people thought the world was flat", thus adapting the old creationist slop about the Biblical scientific foreknowledge in Isaiah 40:22.

• However, not only is his reasoning extremely fallacious, the premise is completely false, and his claim should set alarm bells ringing in anyone with an elementary knowledge of history. Aristotle proved the earth was spherical as early as the 4^th century BCE; the Qu'ran was written in the 7^th century CE, by which time this knowledge had spread.

• He also doesn't seem to believe in evolution, stating that "most scientists today do not agree with Darwin's theory" and explicitly denies that humans evolved. Other fallacies employed include loud shouting, "just a theory", that Darwin didn't have conclusive evidence (ignoring 150 years of further research), asking for more transitional fossils, straw man, argument from authority, ad hominem (making fun of the questioner's English, which is actually vastly superior to his strong Indian accent), and shouting "you need to learn about science" when the questions start becoming too difficult. In other words, the creationist bs that you see from his Christian counterparts too.

• Naik has also claimed that "Science tells us that even plants can feel pain", but that humans cannot hear plants crying out in pain because the sound is not within audible range.

• About the 9/11 attacks, Zakir Naik said that it was an "inside job" and done by Bush himself.

• When asked for proof of an afterlife, Naik attempted to prove the existence of an afterlife by claiming that since there might not be adequate punishment for a crime in this world, there must exist a place where such crime can be punished. This assumes perfect justice exists and begs the question. He asks how a person who robs and rapes with impunity would receive justice, while suggesting the Mafia as an example. Perhaps Zakir Naik might have found a better example if he had a greater knowledge of Islam. Mohammed the prophet of Islam raided Meccan caravans (Al-Qarada raid was one of these) which eventually precipitated the Battle of Badr. After the Battle of the Trench all the men of the Bedouin Jewish tribe Banu Nadir were executed and the women and girls were distributed among the companions of Mohammed. The night after the battle, after the torture by fire and execution of Kenana ibn al-Rabi, her husband, execution of her father Huyayy ibn Akhtab and her brother, Mohammed raped, but they call it married Safiyyah bint Huyayy in his tent while an armed guard was posted outside.

References

This Islam-related article is a stub.
You can help RationalWiki by expanding it.