An overwhelming number of Sufi and Shia Muslims in all these cities have peacefully protested against the proposed programmes of Zakir Naik.

Radical religious preacher and president of the Islamic Research Foundation, Zakir Naik, is a controversial clerical figure since the time he left his medical profession for a priestly career.

A medical doctor-turned- televangelist, Naik is a Salafism-inspired debater on Islam loudly speaking of himself as a ‘student of Comparative Religion'. Based in Mumbai, he is a frequent state guest of Saudi Arabia who has been honoured by the kingdom, on several occasion, for propagating its state religion “Salafism”, or what is popularly known as Wahhabism. Unlike the radical Islamist preachers from South Punjab in Pakistan or from Afghanistan who grew up under the Taliban influence, Naik was born and brought up in a liberal Muslim society with secular Indian ethos. Therefore, it is utterly surprising to see how an Indian Muslim qualified doctor of a modern educational background turned into the biggest Salafist preacher of the world.

Though, in the beginning, he was praised by most common Muslims in India and abroad, they have been awakened by their local clergy and imams against Naik’s un-Islamic utterances. On account of his coining an exclusivist and supremacist theology, Naik has been opposed by almost all mainstream Islamic scholars, except those who subscribe to the Wahhabi-Salafi clergymen of Saudi Arabia, popularly known in India as Ulema of Ahle Hadith.

Interestingly, Naik embarked on his Salafist mission in a disguise. He emerged as an Islamic televangelist speaking about Islam as a faith of peace and pluralism, finding similarities in it with different religions. But he showed his true colours later when he pronounced supremacist, anti-Semitic and incendiary judgments against other faith traditions.

More deplorable to Muslims was his misguided and narrowed stand on various theological issues in Islam as well as other religions. As a result, mainstream Muslims have been advised by the classical Islamic scholars and Muftis (theologians) to shun his speeches and prevent his programmes in their localities. Consequently, he was barred, in the last few years, from addressing Islamic conferences and public gatherings in Allahabad, Kanpur and Lucknow and New Delhi at the urging of local influential imams as well as the moderate Islamic thinkers.

An overwhelming number of Sufi and Shia Muslims in all these cities have peacefully protested against the proposed programmes of Naik. They maintained that Naik has not only offended the religious sentiments of both Shia and Sunni-Sufi Muslims, but also tried to sabotage the universal values of national interest; interfaith harmony, communal affinity, national integration and respect for all faiths. Therefore, they held, they did not want Naik to preach to the Indian Muslims who are imbued in Sufi teachings of communal harmony, spiritual symbiosis and sharing cultural amity among the different religious communities of India.

Challenging Sufi Islam, which calls for inclusiveness and syncretic values among Muslims and non-Muslims, Naik run down the age-old Rishi-Sufi tradition of peace and pluralism in the country. Through his enchanting memorization of holy verses of different religious scriptures to lay the claim of religious supremacy, he created a huge fan club among the Muslims, particularly those inclined to the Salafism.

Cherry-picking the religious texts out of sync with their deeper connotations, he evolved an utterly exclusivist, intolerant, xenophobic and anti-pluralism theological underpinnings breeding the ground for the Salafist combat against kufr (infidelity) and shirk (polytheism). No wonder then, the recent brutal killing of an innocent Sufi singer Amjad Sabri in Pakistan is viewed as the assassination of a grave worshipper, a mushrik (polytheist) by the hardcore followers of Naik.

It is a common knowledge that Naik often demonized the Sufi Muslims calling them Qabr parast (shrine worshippers) likening their shirk to that of the Hindu community. He is on record clearly stating that, "aaj ke daur men Muhammad (pbuh) se bhi mangna shirk hai, in fakiron aur babaon ki to baat hi mat karo" (It's an act of polytheism to seek blessings even from Muhammad pbuh in this age, not to speak of the Sufi saints and holy men). Like the most Salafist clergy, Naik has also declared the Sufi and Shia communities beyond the pale of Islam on these theological grounds.

Therefore, both Sufi-Sunni and Shia Muslims in India countered Naik along with other radical Salafist preachers and televangelists like Shaikh Yusuf al-Qardawi, the spiritual leader of Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood) in Egypt. For instance, an apex body of Sufi Sunni Muslims in India, All India Ulama & Mashaikh Board (AIUMB) organized a massive protest against his public lecture on 17 January, 2015 at Delhi’s India Islamic Cultural Centre (IICC). A large number of common Muslims, from both Sunnis and Shias, gathered outside the premises of the IICC protesting against his address at the venue. I myself heard them shout slogans against Naik’s radical Salafism taking roots in India. One slogan was going like this: Na Atanki Na ikhwan…Sunni Sufi Hindustan (India is an abode for Sufi Sunnis, not for terrorists or extremist political outfits like Muslim Brotherhood).

After a week or so, the AIUMB also took out a strong procession against the leading extremist Wahhabi preachers in the Middle East, particularly Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a world-renowned Egyptian Salafist Islamist jurist (Mufti) who had sought to justify suicide-bombing of the jihadists in his Fatwas. Sufi Muslims in India lament that al-Qaradawi, despite his explicit radical pronouncements, continues to enjoy exposure via global Islamic TV channels. His weekly program “al-Shari’a wal-Hayat” (Sharia and Life) aired on an Egyptian TV channel is one of the most viewed TV programmes in the Middle East.

Naik has often averred that he has never offended the religious sentiments of any Islamic sect nor did he outrage other faith traditions. But his incendiary speeches against different faiths and various established beliefs and practices of Islam are viral.

He declared the battle of Karbala between the Prophet’s grandson Imam Husain and the tyrant ruler, Yazid as a political phenomenon in the Islamic history, which is viewed as a ‘fight between good and evil'. Imam Hussain strongly refused to surrender to the unjust and tyrannical ruler Yazid, who walked away from the Prophet’s concept of leadership through consensual democracy and created a completely dictatorial dynasty. Yazid was responsible for the brutal killings of Imam Hussain and his entire noble family along with his companions. He led the war of destruction at Medina. Therefore, the sacrifice of Imam Hussain is looked up as a lofty Islamic principle of democracy, freedom and justice. But in his speeches, Naik held Yazid in high esteem glorifying him with a great Islamic prayer “May Allah bless him”. Because of this sectarian slug fest, Naik had to face the ire of the mainstream Sufi and Shia Muslims.

More to the point, Naik cannot wash off his hands from his inflammatory speeches that might cause violent extremism in a section of the gullible Muslim youth. In one of his lectures when he was asked whether how he viewed Osama bin Laden. He replied: “If he (Osama bin Laden) is terrorizing the biggest terrorist (America) then, I endorse him.”

Indeed, it’s a matter of grave concern. It’s unthinkable to lionize a global terrorist responsible for the murder of thousands of people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. But one is amazed at the sheer naivety of this global Salafist televangelist who washes off his hands stating that he did not meet Osama bin Laden.

Javed Anand, general secretary, Muslims for Secular Democracy, has succinctly put it: “Naik could say nothing for sure about bin Laden because “I have never met him”. Naik never met George Bush either but he had no doubt that the former American President was the “biggest terrorist”.

This is precisely why Naik’s Peace TV has been banned in India. It had potential to inspire violent extremism. Since its inception, it has been airing views antithetical to interfaith harmony, pluralism and democracy in India, much in the same way as the Salafist televangelists did in Egyptian Islamic televisions. Peace TV had a viewer base of up to 100 million people across the region. But due to the extremist, exclusivist and misogynistic utterances that Naik made in several episodes, the Indian government has banned Peace TV broadcasts in India since 2012. Answering a question in the Lok Sabha in 2012, the Minister of State of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had stated that “The content of this channel (Peace TV) is not conducive to the security environment in the country and poses a potential security hazard.”

More worryingly, Naik’s outfit, Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) was extensively featured on the official website of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which has been declared a terrorist organization under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

It cannot be denied outright that radical religious preachers like Naik misguided a section of the gullible and naïve Muslim youth indoctrinating them into an ideology of religious bigotry, exclusivism and supremacism. But at the same time, it is gratifying to note that the mainstream Indian Muslims are increasing awareness about the imminent threat that the radical preachers pose to the secular fabric of the country. Muslims who are anchored in the Rishi-Sufi tradition of India have always combated and defeated the menace of radicalism. They are gearing up to do it again.

The author is a scholar of Comparative Religion & Classical Islamic sciences, cultural analyst and Doctoral Research Scholar at Centre for Culture, Media & Governance (JMI Central University). Contact him at grdehlavi@gmail.com.