Continuous conquest of Jihadist media

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
September 1, 2010

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/968/continuous-conquest-of-jihadist-media

Infamous and notorious Dr. Zakir Naik's media vehicle of spreading hate speech has stepped into further expansion with the establishment of a Urdu channel named Peace TV – Urdu under the network of Peace TV, now targeting additional audience of at least 90 million, though the Peace TV has around 60 million audience in twenty countries in the world at this moment.

Peace TV was launched on Arabsat on satellite BADR-3 in October 2006. In November, it was available on BADR-3 and BADR-C. In 2007, Peace TV returned to BADR-4, and became available on PanAmSat PAS-10. It became the first and only Islamic channel of the world. As of September 2007, Peace TV is available in the United States and Canada on World TV channel 65, and in the UK Broadcaster Kamran Khan and Europe on Sky platform, channel 820. It is also freely available from the LiveStation satellite television computer application which can be downloaded from the internet, free of charge.

This television channel, promoting Jihad and converting non-Muslims into Islam either through alluring promises made secretly by Dr. Zakir Naik and his gang, receives monthly donation of US$ 20-25 million from various individuals and institutions in the world. Major segment of such donations come from Zakaat [Islamic Charity] fund. In addition, Dr. Zakir Naik receives roughly US$ 3-4 million every month from various wealthy Muslim individuals and rulers in the world, for holding seminars in promoting Islam in various Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Each of the seminars, organized by Dr. Zakir Naik's organization named Islamic Research Foundation [IRF] costs approximately US$ 2-3 hundred thousand. IRF is registered as a non-profit organization in Mumbai, India.

Dr. Zakir Naik has also established another organization named United Islamic Aid, with the goal of collecting at least US$ 25 million per year from Muslims with 'revolutionary vision'. To become a member of this group, any individual is asked to contribute US$ 250 per year, which Dr. Zakir Naik wishes to use as per Sharia concept of 'Baitul Maal' [Islamic Treasury].

Following the tremendous growth of Islamic Research Foundation, United Islamic Aid and Peace TV network, Dr. Zakir Naik now has launched his next program named 'Islamic International School' with its first outlet in Mumbai, India. This is a modern-form project of kindergarten madrassa in reality, which targets students from affluent classes, with the goal of poisoning the minds of kids with extreme Jihadist indoctrination and motivation. This Islamic school will soon be affiliated to ICGSE Board, Cambridge University, United Kingdom. Female students of this school will have to wear Islamic Hijab according to the website of this institution. Careful visit to the website of this institution will give very clear idea as to how Dr. Zakir Naik is now playing important role in breeding Jihadists in India as well in other countries in the world, through his newest venture named Islamic International School.

Let me once again mention the identity of this Dr. Zakir Naik. In a lecture delivered on 31 July 2008 on Peace TV, Naik argued that 9/11 "it is a blatant, open secret that this attack on the Twin Towers was done by George Bush himself", to give Bush reason to attack and control oil-rich countries.

In a YouTube video recorded in Singapore in 1996 Naik said: "If Osama Bin Laden is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him. If he is terrorizing the terrorists, the biggest terrorist, I am with him. Every Muslim should be a terrorist."

Dr. Zakir Naik considers United States a terrorist, because he holds America responsible for the deaths of thousands of people living in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

Zakir Naik continues to make anti-Semitic statements in his 'lectures' on Peace TV and other platforms; on record, he says, "Jews are our staunchest enemy."

Naik has been denied entry into United Kingdom and Canada since June 2010. In June 2010 Zakir Naik was banned from entering the United Kingdom by the Home Secretary Theresa May. He had arranged to give talks in London and Sheffield. May said of the exclusion order regarding Naik, "Numerous comments made by Dr Naik are evidence to me of his unacceptable behavior, she noted statements from Naik such as, "every Muslim should be a terrorist".

In the lecture at Melbourne University, Naik argued that only Islam gave women true equality. He stressed the importance of the headscarf by arguing that the more "revealing Western dress" makes women more susceptible to rape.

Naik and his teachings have been associated with terrorists including Najibullah Zazi, Rahil Sheikh and Kafeel Ahmed.

Dr. Zakir has stated that any Muslim is free to convert out of Islam if the person so chooses, but added that if a Muslim converts then speaks against Islam then that is considered as treason. Naik stated that under Islamic law this is punishable by death.

During a question-and-answer session at one of Zakir's lectures May 29 on the Maldives, a 37-year old Maldivian citizen named Mohamed Nazim stood up and announced that he was struggling to believe in any religion and did not consider himself to be a Muslim; Nazim further asked what his verdict would be under Islam and in the Maldives. Zaik responded that he considers the punishment for apostasy not necessarily to mean death since Muhammed was reported in the Hadith scriptures to on some occasion to have shown clemency towards apostates, but added that if a Muslim apostate speaks and propagates against Islam under Islamic Sharia rule then the apostate should be put to death. Mohamed Nazim was reported to have been arrested and put in 'protective custody' by the Maldivian Police. He later publicly reverted back to Islam in custody after series of threats by the administration.

In 2004, Naik visited New Zealand and then the Australian capital at the invitation of Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia. At his conference in Melbourne, senior writer and columnist Sushi Das commented that "Naik extolled the moral and spiritual superiority of Islam and lampooned other faiths and the West in general", further criticizing that Naik's words "fostered a spirit of separateness and reinforced prejudice".

Khushwant Singh, a prominent Indian journalist, politician and author argues that Naik's pronouncements are "juvenile" and said that "they seldom rise above the level of undergraduate college debates, where contestants vie with each other to score brownie points".

Singh replied to Zakir Naik's statement that "Western society claims to have uplifted women. On the contrary, it has actually degraded them to the status of concubines, mistresses, and society butterflies who are mere tools in the hands of pleasure seekers and sex marketers…." by saying "Dr. Naik, you know next to nothing about the Western society and are talking through your skull cap. People like you are making the Muslims lag behind other communities." Singh also noted that Naik's audiences "... listen to him with rapt attention and often explode in enthusiastic applause when he rubbishes other religious texts ..."

Lucknow based cleric Kalbe Jawad argued that "Naik is bringing a bad name to Muslims. Such people should be condemned and socially boycotted" and claimed that Naik was being financed by the Wahabi sect that supposedly perpetrates violence in the name of Islam and expressed the need for an inquiry into, how Naik was running a TV channel on his own and where he received the funds from. Another Lucknow cleric Naib Imam Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali claimed that Naik has "mugged up some verses from the Koran and pretends to be an Islamic scholar".

Despite all such controversies Dr. Zakir Naik's mission of spreading hate speech is continuing in full swing. He not only runs a huge Jihadist television network, but also is gradually penetrating into non-Muslim societies through his charitable organizations, Islamic schools etc. No one is daring to investigate the sources of hundreds of millions of dollars of funds; he is receiving from various unknown people and institutions. And, it is giving him the opportunity of further expanding his Jihadist conquest in the world.

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