Confusion is the very first symptom of fear. And fear reminds one of his roots. So, it is not unusual that during his days of fear, Dr. Zakir Naik wrote an open letter to – Indians, though it is clear from the second paragraph itself he was addressing it to only Indian Muslims.
Apprehending a ban on his activities being funded by moneybags from the middle-east, he tried to hide behind the very basics of Indian system he opposed. As a person who believes in the Wahhabi model of Islam in which there is no place to democracy and no regard to laws other than those written in the Shariyat, Zakir Naik converted to a common citizen of India who believes in Indian democracy and judiciary.
His attempt to equate the attack on his activities to an attack on Indian Muslims, is laughable, at best. In his words, if the community is to be attacked the biggest name and the most popular figure is attacked. By declaring himself to be the biggest name and most popular figure in Indian Muslims, he confirmed he is suffering from megalomania and narcissism at the same time. If Indian Muslims have to choose a popular figure, there are luminaries like Abdul Kalam, Maulana Azad, who never had to hide behind the religious cloak for self-protection. Then, he is not as intellectual like those luminaries.
He raised few questions against the ‘purported’ banning of him and his organization and such questions were always raised by all those accused of being Scamsters. Was he ready to take questions from others? His sham in the name of video conference with journalists and the way he misbehaved with the media exposed what he really was.
If he feels 20 crore Indian Muslims are under threat, can he explain how and why their population increased, despite being in minority in this country, while the population of all minority communities had decreased in each and every country where Muslims are in majority?
Well, it is because in India, Islam is one of many religions that people practice. This land gave birth to many philosophies that dealt with spirituality and the root of all those philosophies was the quest to ‘understanding self’. When people with materialistic priorities controlled the masses by imposing customs, new philosophers rose to redefine things.
Can Zakir Naik explain why and how an average Indian Muslim started growing beard and shaved moustache in the last two decades? Why their dressings have changed from the traditional Indian ones to those robes specific to Arabia? What he did to improve in the last two decades to improve standard of living of ordinary Muslims? He can never.
All he did was to get funds from the extremist Wahhabis based in Arabia through his ‘Peace TV’ that was aired – not from India but from Dubai. For long Zakir Naik ridiculed other religions for which evidence is available in the form of videos on YouTube. The man who ridicule other religions also ridicule his own, by sporting a suit like a western philosopher (a typical Indian trait, huh) instead of covering himself in flowing white robes like those who fund his programs.
To use his own words, he sensed the writing on the wall, and was prepared to live in exile – like the infamous Dawood Ibrahim. He expressed confidence that many countries would welcome him.
However, he fails to explain why he had not returned to India, if he believes in Indian judiciary as he is confident of committing no crime. People like him use religions, like the mullah from Saudi who declared Shias of Iran as non-Muslims. If Zakir Naik believes in true Islam, in which God is one and nothing on this earth is sacred, why Indian Muslims should not be worrying about the Babri Masjid, especially when it was constructed on a temple that had the pillars with ‘Pig’ carved on it!
Should he not be questioning the illogical customs and practices in Islam that was based on the reason in the very first place? If IRF stands for Islamic Research Foundation, and they do research on Islam, why and how he failed to educate Indian Muslims first about the logical reasoning that was the base of Islam and renounce all the illogical practices like “Sacrifice’, ‘Talaq’ and forming various sects that came into existence over a period of time.
His worry about what happens to India if we let the bigotry seep into the fabric of India is an absurd notion, for all the countries that follow the doctrine preached by him stood for bigotry, throughout their existence. There is no harm in knowing and learning new theories and philosophies. The problem comes when people start aping alien systems. One should know native systems and then learn new ones, eventually comparing both and opting for the good in all. As religions have been created from the sprout of ‘thought’ when people use religion to kill reason, the religion itself gets decimated. This happened to all religions and only those which allowed questioning by people could survive.
Then, the new creed of businessmen in the garb of ‘religious preachers’ had emerged in the last few decades. Though such preachers exist in Hinduism, Hindu masses see those Sadhvis and Maharajs only as people who could provide a bit of comic relief, unlike the followers of Zakir Naik who dedicate their lives to take out others’ lives, all the while Dr Naik was withdrawing millions of dollars donated to him by the Saudi government for promoting Wahhabism.
One point Zakir Naik missed was he couldn’t fool all, forever. Average Indian Muslim, despite the propaganda by the Wahhabis have not so far responded for they know the truth. In the eyes of Sunni Muslims of Saudi Arabia, brown skinned Muslims from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were always – the working class, a class of people destined to serve their Arabian masters – by the decree of God. And if Dr Naik is banned, someone else will take his place. This would continue till the last drop of oil is pumped out of the gulf, by the western companies. When the payments to gulf are stopped and camels become the lifeline of the gulf instead of imported cars, only then the funding from the Gulf countries stop. It is better, even for those countries, to stop wasting the funds to propagate a religious doctrine that failed to combine all Arabs into one, even after fourteen centuries.
Eventually it dawned on Zakir Naik also that he is protected only by the constitution of India and by no other sacred document. Like those parasite birds feasting on others bodies run away even at the small movement, he ran out into the safety of like minded group of people, instead of proving his innocence. Then, he is no innocent!
