‘Hindus in India love me so much that…’: Islamic preacher Zakir Naik delivers first lecture in Oman
Fugitive preacher Zakir Naik, who gave his first lecture ‘The Quran is a Global Necessity’ in Oman, said that the majority of Hindus in India love him.
“The problem is that the majority of Hindus in India love me. They love me so much that it is creating a problem for the vote bank. In India, when I do talks and meetings, there are hundreds and thousands of people, 50 million to 100 million, especially in Bihar and Kishanganj, and out of these, 20 per cent are non-Muslims,” Zakir Naik said.
“When they talk to me they tell Zakir Bhai what we learned in the last two hours (in his lecture), we have not learnt after 40 hours of lectures on our religion,” the Islamic preacher added.
Speaking at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday, which also marks the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Naik compared how a “Sikh judge” Manmohan Singh said he found nothing “objectionable” in his comments while the ED was attempting to attach his properties in 2018.
In January 2018, Judge Manmohan Singh, who presided over the Appellate Tribunal for the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in New Delhi, stopped the ED from seizing Naik’s properties, drawing a similarity between Naik and self-styled spiritual guru Asaram Bapu.
“Allhamdulillah, when a judge in the Indian court said, (when they wanted to attach all my properties) the judge was a Sikh, Manmohan Singh. Fortunately, he had seen many of my talks. He said, to the lawyer of the government, you point out one statement of Dr. Zakir Naik, in context, in any lecture where he promotes terrorism, I will attach all his property,” Zakir Naik added.
“I can name 10 Babas who have properties worth more than Re 10,000 crore each and they are facing criminal cases. Have you acted against even one of them? What have you done against Asaram Bapu?” Singh asked the counsel for the ED.
According to footage shared on social media, during his lecture in Muscat, Zakir Nair converted an Indian Hindu woman to Islam, read some Quranic verses to her, and requested her to repeat them.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday said that all necessary actions will be taken to bring back radical Islamic preacher Zakir Naik to India.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “Zakir Naik is an accused in numerous cases in India. He is a fugitive from justice. We have taken up the matter with the government of Oman and its authorities.”
Naik, 57, fled India in 2016 after his organisation Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) was banned, and a first information report was lodged under his name. He is accused of instigating Muslim youth and terrorists in India and abroad to commit terrorist acts.
In 2019, he was also banned from delivering public speeches in Malaysia. Besides India, his Peace TV network is also banned in Bangladesh, Canada, Sri Lanka, and the UK.
The Government of India had banned his Peace TV channel for peddling hate propaganda.
