Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said that the Centre has taken cognisance of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik’s speeches and issued instructions to take necessary action, ANI reported.
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“The Home Ministry will analyse everything”, Naidu said, adding that speeches of Naik “are objectionable”. “His speeches, as being reported in the media, are highly objectionable”, the new Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters.
Inu said New Delhi has been requested to examine Naik’s sermons.
The controversial Islamic orator and founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation is banned in the United Kingdom and Canada for his “hate speech” aimed at other religions.
This demand follows the revelation that some of the militants behind the recent deadly militant attack in Dhaka may have been inspired by the controversial Salafist preacher Zakir, based on their previous postings on social media.
When asked if Naik will be arrested after he lands in Mumbai from Mecca, the Mumbai police spokesman DCP (Operations) Ashok Dudhe said, “It is premature to say anything at present, as we have initiated the enquiry into (the speeches of) Naik”. Banned in several countries for his controversial speeches, Naik was called by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in 2006 for questioning, after the 11/7 train blasts. Some people from the ruling party are open and loud in hate-speeches, they say, they are gonna “make a Muslim free India” (sick) — yet no action!
Meanwhile, Zakir Naik-who is in Saudi Arabia and is likely to return on July 11-has rebuffed all allegations targeted against him. “But as a minister, I will not comment what action will be taken”.
Naik is a follower of Salafi sect of Islam, also known as Wahhabism after its founder Muhammed ibn Abs al-Wahhab.
Rubbishing a Bangladeshi newspaper report that he inspired one of the Dhaka carnage perpetrators, Naik sought to put the blame on “other speakers who misguide Muslims in the name of Islam”.
A recipient of the Tokoh Maal Hijrah award in 2013, Dr Zakir had visited Malaysia in April, where he delivered a series of lectures in Terengganu and later a talk at the hockey stadium in Bukit Jalil on April 16.
I don’t regret sharing dais with him as he was speaking against the acts of terrorism and how Islam was against killing innocent.
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The statement further reads that the book highlighted the shared values between the two religions and sought to bring them together, adding that it had influenced many youth who were skeptical about Hinduism.
