Zakir Naik facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Zakir Naik
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Naik in the Maldives, 2010
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Zakir Abdul Karim Naik
18 October 1965 Bombay, Maharashtra, India
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| Alma mater | University of Mumbai (MBBS) |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1991–present |
| Known for | Dawah |
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| Board member of | Islamic Research Foundation, Islamic International School and United Islamic Aid |
| Spouse(s) | Farhat Naik |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards |
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| YouTube information | |
| Years active | 2011–present |
| Genre | |
| Subscribers | 3.84 million |
| Total views | 268 million |
| Associated acts | Huda TV |
| Subscriber and view counts updated as of 20 April 2024. | |
Zakir Abdul Karim Naik (born 18 October 1965) is an Indian Islamic public orator who focuses on comparative religion. He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and Peace TV. He is a well-known figure in the Islamic world, and while he does not claim to be a follower of any one school of thought in Islam, he is most closely associated with the Salafi school of thought.
Naik is currently a wanted fugitive in India, where, in 2016, the authorities charged Naik for money laundering while he was abroad in Malaysia; Naik did not return to India and became a permanent resident of Malaysia. Naik denies all charges. The National Investigation Agency unsuccessfully attempted to issue an Interpol red notice for his arrest, due to insufficient evidence. Naik's Peace TV is banned in India, Bangladesh, Canada, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom under hate speech laws.
Contents
Early life and education
Zakir Naik was born on 18 October 1965 to Abdul Karim Naik and Roshan Naik in Bombay, India. He attended Kishinchand Chellaram College and studied medicine at the Topiwala National Medical College & BYL Nair Charitable Hospital and later the University of Mumbai, where he obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS).
Career
In 1991 he started working in the field of dawah and founded the Islamic International School in Mumbai and the United Islamic Aid, which provides scholarships to poor and destitute Muslim youth. Naik's wife, Farhat Naik, is the president of the women's section of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF). He established United Islamic Aid, which provides scholarship to poor and destitute Muslim youth.
Naik said in 2006 that he was inspired by Ahmed Deedat, an Islamic preacher whom he met in 1987. (Naik is sometimes referred to as "Deedat plus", a label given to him by Deedat.)
On 21 January 2006, the Islamic Research Foundation, which Naik heads, founded Peace TV. It is a non-profit Emirati satellite television network that broadcasts free-to-air programming. It is one of the world's largest religious satellite television networks.
In the second half of March 2021, Naik launched Al Hidaayah, which provides educational content about Islam. The platform has thousands of hours of videos of more than 40 renowned Islamic speakers from all over the world including Ahmed Deedat, Yusuf Estes, Hussein Ye, and Bilal Philips. He claimed that this platform is a "halal" version of Netflix.
Lectures and debates
Unlike many Islamic preachers, his lectures are colloquial, given in English, not Urdu or Arabic, and he usually wears a suit and tie. Naik has held many debates and lectures and is said to "have delivered over 4000 lectures around the world" as of 2016. Anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen has written that Naik's style of memorising the Quran and Hadith literature in various languages, and his related missionary activity, has made him extremely popular in Muslim circles. Many of his debates are recorded and widely distributed in video and DVD media and online. His talks have been recorded in English and broadcast on weekends on several cable networks in Mumbai's Muslim neighbourhoods, and on the Peace TV channel, which he co-produces. Topics he speaks on include: "Islam and Modern Science", "Islam and Christianity", and "Islam and secularism".
His first debate was in 1994, a debate on the views of writer Taslima Nasreen on Islam in her book Lajja, organised at the "Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh", entitled "Is Religious Fundamentalism a Stumbling block to Freedom of Expression?". With the presence of four journalists, the debate went on for hours. In April 2000, Naik debated with William Campbell in Chicago on the topic of "The Qur'an and the Bible: In the Light of Science", one of his most-cited debates. On 21 January 2006 Naik held an inter-religious dialogue with Ravi Shankar in Bangalore about the concept of God in Islam and Hinduism. In February 2011 Naik addressed the Oxford Union via video link from India.
University of Melbourne
In 2004 Naik, at the invitation of the Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia, made an appearance at the University of Melbourne, where he argued that only Islam gave women true equality. ..... Sushi Das of The Age commented that "Naik extolled the moral and spiritual superiority of Islam and lampooned other faiths and the West in general", further stating that Naik's words "fostered a spirit of separateness and reinforced prejudice".
St David's Hall
In August 2006, Naik's visit and conference in Cardiff caused controversy when Welsh conservative MP David Davies called for his appearance to be cancelled. He said Naik was a "hate-monger", and that his views did not deserve a public platform. Muslims from Cardiff, however, defended Naik's right to speak in the city. Saleem Kidwai, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Wales, stated that "people who know about him [Naik] know that he is one of the most uncontroversial persons you could find. He talks about the similarities between religions, and how should we work on the common ground between them", whilst also inviting Davies to discuss further with Naik personally in the conference. The conference went ahead after the Cardiff council stated it was satisfied that he would not be preaching extremist views.
Invitation to Gambia
In 2014, Naik visited Gambia at the invitation of President Yahya Jammeh to attend the grand celebration of Gambian revolution's 20th anniversary. There he delivered four lectures between 11 and 22 October. The lectures took place in University of the Gambia, Pancha Mi Hall of Paradise Suites Hotel, presidents home village Kanilai, Foni Kansala and Kairaba Beach Hotel, Kololi. Gambian cabinet ministers, religious leaders, students and thousands of people attended his lectures on subjects including "Terrorism and Jihad: an Islamic perspective", "religion in the right perspective", "Dawah or destruction?" and "the misconceptions about Islam". Meanwhile, he also met with the president Yahya Jammeh along with Gambia Supreme Islamic Council and held an Islamic conference with the Imams of Gambia.
Malaysia
Naik delivered four lectures in Malaysia during 2012. The lectures took place in Johor Bahru, Universiti Teknologi MARA in Shah Alam, Kuantan and Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur. The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, prominent figures and several thousand people attended the lectures at different places despite protest by the members of HINDRAF. The organisers of Naik's speeches said their purpose was to promote harmony among people of various religions.
Naik delivered another six lectures in April 2016. Two of his lectures in Malaysia, entitled "Similarities between Hinduism and Islam" and "Is the Quran God's word?" were objected by HINDRAF, along with other NGOs, saying that these lectures might provoke inter-racial tensions. With the initial support of the Government authority, the event went ahead as planned.
Naik delivered a speech on Islamophobia on 9 August 2019 at the Sultan Mohammad IV Stadium, Kota Bharu, Kelantan which was attended by more than 100,000 people.
Views
Naik says that his goal is to "concentrate on the educated Muslim youth who have become apologetic about their own religion and have started to feel the religion is outdated". He considers it a duty of every Muslim to remove perceived misconceptions about Islam and to counter what he views as the Western media's anti-Islamic bias in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. Naik has said that "despite the strident anti-Islam campaign, 34,000 Americans have embraced Islam from September 2001 to July 2002". According to Naik, Islam is a religion of reason and logic, and the Quran contains 1000 verses relating to science, which he says explains the number of Western converts. Some of his articles are published in magazines such as Islamic Voice.
Naik said that Islam is the "best" religion because "The Quran says it. No other religious text or scripture claims this fact." He has condemned dancing and singing because they are prohibited in Islam.
Naik said that guilty people must be severely punished. In accordance with the Quran and sunnah, he recommends the death penalty for homosexuals.
Naik has called the media "the most important tool rather the most dangerous weapon in the world, which converts black into white and a villain into a hero". He suggested that "We should use the same media to remove the misconceptions, misquotations, misinterpretations, and misrepresentations about Islam."
He said, "The maximum damage done to the image of Islam today is by the international media which is bombarding misconceptions about it day and night using an array of strategies. International media, be it print, audio, video, or online, use a number of strategies to malign Islam by first picking up the black sheep of the Muslim community, and portraying them as though they are exemplary Muslims." Naik also claimed the "third and fourth" strategy by international media is "to pick a word from Quran or sunnah and mistranslate it" and "to malign Islam by saying something that does not belong to it". Naik also criticizes the portrayal of Muslims in films.
Naik has been at the center of multiple controversies regarding the topic of terrorism, most notably for being seen as an inspiration for terrorists.
See also
In Spanish: Zakir Naik para niños
