Dr. Zakir Naik –
And Others Like Him
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)
A 15-Million Bounty on Muslim Preacher’s Head:
People Want Answers
People wrote to me about the Mumbai-based Indian Islamic Speaker, Preacher and TV Personality, Dr. Zakir Naik. They wanted to know why everybody was suddenly out to get him.
There was supposedly a Muslim fellow of some sort in India who placed a bounty of 1.5 million Indian Rupees on Dr. Naik's head.
A female Hindu leader in India, then, upped that bounty amount to 5 million Indian Rupees for what the media called "beheading Zakir Naik."
Don’t Know the Man
Now, I have neither studied nor followed Dr. Naik in any significant way. Frankly, I cannot say that I know either the man – or his message or his methodology or any of his operations.
Nor have I watched, or read anything about, his television channel, which I have heard is called Peace TV.
What a strange name! Certainly not a name I would have chosen.
The words Peace TV have some very serious implications.
First of all, it is a tacit acknowledgement that somehow Muslims are bad people, as everybody says they are. They are prone to senseless mayhem and ruthless violence, every opportunity they get.
And Islam itself is, somehow, not free from the taint of violence that the enemies of Islam so persistently, and so repeatedly, have tried to associate with it over the years, decades and centuries.
To call your television channel Peace TV proclaims to the whole world that yes, there are all kinds of violence that Islam is home to, and Muslims are engaged in, but this particular television channel, my television channel, my Peace TV, is somehow different.
This one is Peace TV.
Unlike all else that Islam and Muslims maybe.
Peace TV
I am not saying Muslims cannot or do not act violently at times, all human beings do, but calling your media operation Peace TV is wholesale acceptance of enemy propaganda line about Islam and Muslims.
And by “enemy” I mean all those who despise Islam and Muslims for whatever reason or for no reason at all.
This is mindless embracing of the narrative – storyline – put out by the “enemy” to defeat and destroy Islam and to demoralize and demonize Muslims constantly associating violence with them.
And from this point of view, it does not really matter what kind of material this self-proclaimed Peace TV presents to the world.
The point is, by calling your television operation Peace TV, you have tacitly signed off on the charge of mindless violence directed against Islam and Muslims. And the damage is already done.
It is one more nail in the coffin of Muslim reputation and integrity and good name.
Islam the “Peaceful Religion”
It is a media incarnation of that other mindless monstrosity, perpetrated by certain sections of American Muslim Community, that some years ago began referring to Islam as a “Peaceful Religion.”
This Peaceful Religion nonsense is a perverse Bid’at of Islam in America, invented in the so-called Post-911 World, by those among American Muslims who thought that was the best way to please and placate the West.
They wanted to get a good name for themselves – and for Islam – by all and any means necessary. So they started to call Islam a “Peaceful Religion.”
They thought that would make America and everybody else love them. Poor sops! How clueless they were!
They knew neither their Qur’an nor the world in which they lived. They thought all they needed to do was call their Islam a “Peaceful Religion” and that would make everyone fall in love with them.
Also, at that time, that is how stupid they thought the rest of the world was.
At best it was a knee-jerk reaction to the shock and horror of the events of 9-11. At worst, and at least to some degree, it was an attempt to fool the world, and to hide and camouflage the complexity and range of Islamic teachings.
It was basically an attempt by some ambitious upstarts, acting on behalf of Islam, to portray Islam as somehow free from all forms and kinds of “violence,” which was a most foolish thing to do when it comes to dealing with the Deen of Allah: the Creator.
Peace TV’s Royal Patronage
Not the least, my reservations also arise from what I have heard are Dr. Naik’s Royal Connections and patronage.
The Qur’an has the Queen of Sheba warning her people that:
When kings entered a place, they tended to destroy it and shatter the status quo.
And they turned things upside down and robbed honorable people of their honor, dignity, rank and status.
Innal Mulooka Idhaa Dakhaloo Qaryatan Afsadoohaa,
Wa Ja’aloo A-izzata Ahlihaa Adhillah!
Muslim Royalty
And Muslim Royalty may be said to be behind a great deal of what is wrong with the Muslims – and the world – in modern times.
For at least all of the 20th Century, Muslim Royalty has acted as the most powerful weapon in the arsenal of the Colonizers – French, British and others – against Islam and Muslims.
Muslim Royalty was a major instrument that the Western Colonizers used to dismantle the Muslim Turkish Empire; destroy and occupy Palestine and the rest of the so-called Muslim Middle East; create, nurture and protect the Israeli occupation of Palestine; and preside over the displacement and destruction of the Palestinian People.
Anyone with any education or brain, and with any thinking or analytical capability, can see these things. And if Muslims refuse to see or understand this, then their claim to understand either Islam or the world is suspect at best and bogus at worst.
Muslim Royalty! What a contradiction in terms it is!
And Muslim Royalty has been a mortal challenge for Islam, Muslims and the world, going back all these 100 years.
Dr. Naik and His Work
So, I have never given much thought to Dr. Naik – or to his work, whatever that work may happen to be.
But here is what my personal computer model, the one operating in my own head that is – a model actually derived from the Qur'an – would say about people like Dr. Naik and any work that he may be doing.
And this model is a fairly general one – as good models should be.
And as any valid model derived from the Qur'an would be.
For, the Qur'an is for all of humanity, for all times. Actually, the Qur’an is for all the worlds.
Therefore, any model with any appreciable degree of validity, a model that is truly and legitimately based on the most miraculous Aayats of the Qur'an, will and should have universal applicability.
A Model with Parsimony and Explanatory Power
That means such a model will be valid and applicable for all times and ages, and for all places and cultural milieus.
Thus, the model has what scientists would call explanatory power.
That means the model would cover and explain not only the Naik phenomenon in question, but also all other phenomena and events of the same kind and category.
And it is a very simple model.
That means the model offers a simple, basic and straightforward explanation to the observed phenomena – to the data at hand as it were.
Thus the model has the virtue of what scientists call parsimony.
The Fight between Truth and Falsehood –
And between Justice and Injustice
So, here is how the model goes:
If Dr. Naik does to the world what people say he is doing,
then the world will do to Dr. Naik what the Qur'an says
the world tends to do to people like that.
And that means the world will do what the world has always done to people who do what Dr. Naik is supposed to be doing, assuming Dr. Naik is preaching the Truth and he stands for Justice.
And assuming he actively opposes the forces of what Thomas Jefferson called “Tyranny over the Mind of Man.”
And the interesting thing is that this model is not exclusive to the Qur'an. It is also the model that emerges out of the pages of the Bible.
And a careful study of the Bible would show that this was also the model that seems to provide an explanation to the life and outcome of Jesus Christ, God Bless Him – and His Virgin Mother Mary.
And the concept of a perpetual tussle between Truth and Falsehood, and between Right and Wrong, and between Justice and Injustice, and between Dharma and A-Dharma, is deeply ingrained in the Hindu Sacred Texts and Scriptures of India.
While India’s Ram embodies Goodness and Virtue, Sri Lanka’s Ravana epitomizes Evil and Tyranny.
India’s philosopher-poet Iqbal has written a most touching and powerful poem describing the lofty character of Ram and praising Ram’s commitment to Truth and Justice.
In Indian lore, Kalyuga is an epoch characterized by the ascendance of the forces of Falsehood, Tyranny and Injustice in the world.
On the other hand, Ram Rajya is just the opposite. Ram Rajya stands for the bliss of Goodness, Virtue and Justice.
A Model to Explain the Naik Phenomenon
And what is it that Dr. Naik is supposed to be doing?
People say Naik is preaching God's message to the world in a simple and effective manner.
They say Naik explains the basic teachings of Islam to people using the Qur’an as well as the Hindu and Christian Scripture such as the Bible and the Vedas.
And he brings a unique and powerful comparative perspective to his analysis and argument.
And, given all that, his preaching is said to be so popular that people from all walks of life, and from all kinds of religious and social backgrounds, flock to his gatherings and to his events.
And Dr. Naik’s approach and his message are said to be so effective and so powerful that, on any given day, and in any one of Dr. Naik's meetings or events, there is any number of people in the audience who openly declare the Shahaadah.
Evidently, they are that convinced by his preaching and they are that influenced and impressed by the soundness of his message and his teachings.
They embrace Islam on the spot and in public.
“The Man Must Be Stopped”:
He Is Rocking the Boat – He Is Upsetting the Apple Cart!
Now, this is serious business.
This man Naik is not only rocking the boat, as it were, he seems to have become quite a robust pain in the neck for all those who may be on the other side of the fence from him.
That is, all those people, forces, elements, agencies and organizations who, for whatever reason, may be opposed to Islam and Muslims.
And thus to Dr. Naik himself. The “enemy” as it were.
If my understanding – or should I call it speculation? – is correct, Dr. Naik seems to be operating as a one-man wrecking crew for the sandcastles and air-bubbles his religious and ideological adversaries may have erected so carefully and meticulously over the years – and decades.
And it cannot go unnoticed by all kinds of forces and players in this world – both domestic and foreign. For, Islam, just like it has a global following, also has a global network of “enemies.”
And there are going to be all kinds of powers-that-be, as it were, who would want to put a stop to this thorn in their flesh and silence and “neutralize” this upstart of a man who seems to be running through their house of cards like a proverbial bull in a china shop.
That is to say, if Dr. Naik is preaching Islam to the world, and if he is explaining Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims alike in all kinds of forceful, effective and convincing ways, using primarily non-Muslim sources such as the Bible or the Vedas and other Hindu Scripture, then Dr. Naik poses a serious and direct challenge first and foremost to Shaitan.
And, thereafter, to all the minions and networks and progenies of Shaitan.
And, thus, he is also presenting a serious headache to all vested interests, regardless of whether they are from a Hindu, Christian or so-called Muslim background.
And I can see the consensus emerging from among their midst that simply says: The Man Must Be Stopped.
A Natural Sequence
The entire thing follows a most natural, predetermined and preordained course. A most natural and logical sequence.
That is how it always was. And that is how it always will be.
That is what Islam says. And that is also what the Bible and the Hindu Scripture seem to suggest.
So, if any of what I am saying is true, and if, in any shape or form, Dr. Naik is indeed preaching the word of God, and if he is doing so fairly clearly, powerfully and effectively, then he, and his supporters and admirers, should expect what people say he is getting: Vengeance, hostility and hot pursuit by those who are adversely affected by his preaching.
Elementary stuff, My Dear Watson!
If you don't understand any of this, or if you don't believe what I am saying here, I suggest you go and sit down with a copy of the Qur'an, and read it carefully, and thoroughly, and you will see with your own eyes how clear the Qur'an is on this subject.
Or the Bible is or the Hindu Scripture is!
Then you will know and understand what it is that I am talking about.
Why Are We Saying What We Are Saying?
It is a fair question to ask, why we are saying what we are saying. Why do we appear to defend Dr. Naik, when we barely know anything about the man or about his work?
Simple!
Islam is about Truth. And Muslims must try and speak the truth, even if it is in hypothetical terms.
And Islam is opposed to all forms of Tyranny over the Mind of Man, as Thomas Jefferson so eloquently put it. And it is the worst form of Tyranny to seek to silence a man just because he is a successful preacher of a message.
And in this case, the message of Islam.
And Islam is about Justice.
And it is the worst form of Injustice to destroy anyone’s good name and reputation by leveling false allegations and by Bearing False Witness against him, as the Bible puts it.
The Qur’an calls upon Muslims to be God’s voice and witness for Truth and Justice on God’s earth – by speaking God’s Truth to the world.
The Qur’an calls it all as being part of:
Shuhadaa-a Alan Naasi!
Shuhadaa-a Bil-Qisti!
Shuhadaa-a Lillahi!
Qawwaameena Bil-Qisti!
Qawwameena Lillahi!
END
