Charge against Zakir Naik underway NGOs to be banned

August 28, 2016

Dhaka sources revealed that the Indian home ministry has decided to charge Zakir Naik under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA for speeches the ministry and the Maharashtra government has allegedly found containing extremist content.

Indian government, while declaring the Islamic Research Foundation IRF an ‘unlawful’ organization, is set to slap terror charges on the televangelist Zakir Naik, whose  so-called hate speech was reported to have inspired one of the five Dhaka cafe attackers.

The primary ground for invoking terror charges against Naik are statements by those involved in past terror acts, conceding that they were motivated by his speeches, an intelligence officer said. Naik, who has been abroad since the cafe attack rocked Bangladesh, has reportedly called off plans to return to India.

Further, authorities in India have also decided to ban Naik’s NGO under the same law on grounds of spreading hatred through his speeches. Once the ban is implemented, IRF and its associate organizations across India, will be shut down.

Last month, the Bangladesh government banned Naik’s channel Peace TV. The decision to ban Peace TV Bangla was taken during a special meeting of Cabinet Committee on Law and Order, according to Industry Minister Aamir Hossain Amu, who chaired the meeting.

It was also decided to monitor sermons given during the Friday prayers to check if any provocative lectures are delivered, Amu said. The Bangladesh government also urged imams in the country to deliver sermons condemning terrorism and extremism, the minister added.

 Naik said, he did not support terrorism or violence in any form whatsoever. He had never supported any terrorist organizations and had mentioned this over and over again in thousands of his public talks worldwide. He strongly condemned anyone taking his statements out of context and using it for violence of any form, the televangelist said.