Who is Zakir Naik, the Islamic televangelist India’s chasing, and Malaysia’s loathe to give up?

India has made a formal request to Malaysia to extradite the controversial Islamic preacher and televangelist Zakir Naik, who is wanted on charges of spreading extremism and money laundering.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Wednesday confirmed the request had been made and rejected suggestions by the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad this week that the 53-year-old preacher might be unable to get a fair trial if he returned home.

“India has extradition arrangements with many nations. In the past, there have been numerous cases of successful extradition to India. The fairness of the Indian justice system has never been in question,” Kumar said.

Zakir, a certified medical doctor, has been living in Malaysia since 2016, having fled India amid accusations that he had helped radicalise a group of teenagers who carried out a terror attack on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, which killed 22 people.

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India’s National Investigation Agency accuses the preacher, who founded the Islamic Research Foundation and the satellite television channel Peace TV, of using his speeches and lectures to encourage terrorism. Though Zakir denies the claims, both the foundation and the TV channel have been banned in India.

The agency revoked Zakir’s passport in 2017 after he failed to appear when summoned to cooperate in their investigation.

In a separate case, Zakir faced an allegation that the Islamic International School he was running did not have the relevant government permits. The Maharashtra state school education department threatened to shut the school, which was subsequently taken over by a trust belonging to a local lawmaker, Abu Azmi.

A year later, the agency seized five properties in Mumbai belonging to the fugitive cleric and he has since been banned from giving public talks in Bangladesh, Canada and the UK, in addition to India.

Among Zakir’s controversial opinions are that apostates and LGBT people should be executed by the state, that thieves’ hands should be chopped off and that the September 11 attacks were “an inside job”. One of Naik’s YouTube videos shows him saying that if Osama bin Laden “is terrorising America the terrorist, the biggest terrorist, I am with him”.

Zakir, who won Saudi Arabia’s 2015 King Faisal International Prize for services to Islam, told The Week magazine in May that he was ready to return to India if the Supreme Court gave an assurance he would not be arrested before any conviction.

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“Before the BJP government came, you could speak against the government, and at least 80 per cent of the times you would get justice. Today, the chances are 10-20 per cent,” he said.

Under Malaysia’s extradition treaty with India, it is required to return fugitives unless they would be punished or prosecuted on the basis of their race, religion or political opinion. Mahathir told local media on Monday that Zakir – who has permanent residency in Malaysia – felt he was “not going to get a fair trial”. Malaysia is yet to respond to the official request for extradition, though some critics have suggested the Mahathir administration is loathe to comply with the request as it fears alienating Malay-Muslim voters.

India’s Enforcement Directorate is preparing to obtain a non-bailable arrest warrant against Zakir from a Mumbai court on June 19. If this is secured, it will then ask Interpol to issue a red notice, which would require members including Malaysia to help in the India-born cleric’s arrest.

This article Who is Zakir Naik, the Islamic televangelist India’s chasing, and Malaysia’s loathe to give up? first appeared on South China Morning Post

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