“Zakir Naik is spreading terrorism,” he said. Prominent Shia Muslim cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad Naqvi demanded a complete ban on Naik’s books, speeches and lectures. Shia clerics in Lucknow have accused the televangelist of propagating ideas that attracted Muslim youth to extremism. Naik has also been criticised by the Shias – the second-largest branch of Islam after Sunni Islam.

The members even lodged a complaint against Naik at a local police station, and demanded that he be arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Last year, members of the All India Ulama and Mashaikh Board, an organisation of Sufi Muslims, protested at the India Islamic Cultural Centre in Delhi after the centre invited Naik for a conference. The preacher condemned those who revere Sufi saints and visit their tombs as “grave worshippers”. In the past, Naik has criticised Sufism – the mystical form of Islam that has been present in India for over 1,000 years. During his Eid sermon last week, Maulana Asjad Raza Qadri, head cleric of Bareilly, demanded a ban on Naik for his hate speeches, and said that his activities were against Islam and the culture of India. Who is funding him? The government should also investigate this.”Ĭlerics from the Barelvi school of Sunni Islam, which gets its name from Bareilly – the town in Uttar Pradesh where it originated from – also accused Naik of delivering anti-Islamic speeches.

“Zakir speaks rubbish,” said Barkati, who is the shahi imam of Kolkata’s Tipu Sultan mosque. In his Eid sermon, one of the most powerful Muslim leaders in Bengal, Syed Mohammad Nurur Rahman Barkati, criticised the Muslim televangelist for misleading people and suggested a ban on all his preaching materials in India. However, illegal broadcasts continue and Naik’s sermons are also available online, thus making it hard for the government to limit Naik’s popularity. In 2012, the channel was blocked in India after the Intelligence Bureau red-flagged it for broadcasting malicious and so-called anti-national content.

Many clerics in India have now demanded a ban on Peace TV, which is broadcast from Dubai. On Sunday, Bangladesh banned Naik’s channel. In the aftermath of the July 1 attacks in Dhaka, there were reports that Naik’s provocative speeches had inspired the militants behind the attack in which 20 people, mostly foreigners, were killed. Naik’s Islam is a particularly conservative brand of Salafism, the ultra-conservative reform movement within Islam, which aims to go back to what its proponents call the fundamentals of the faith. Showing unprecedented solidarity, Muslim clerics from all sects have come forward to urge strong action against Naik and his channel for misinterpreting the Quran and misleading Muslims with his evangelism. However, Naik seems to have finally united India’s Muslim clerics. One sign of this is the fact that these various groups continued to celebrate Eid on different days earlier this month. Despite this, he has never been able to unite the different branches, sects and sub-sects of Islam in India. Through his channel, Peace TV, he broadcasts his messages to around 200 million people across India and the world. Superstar Islamic televangelist Zakir Naik claims to be a messenger of peace and harmony. Publisher David Davidar on why young writers make him hopeful about Indian fiction in English.The Great Dimming: One of the brightest stars in the sky is dying before our eyes.How tourism has taken a toll on the livelihoods of fisherfolk in a town in coastal West Bengal.

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