Why Muslims hate Zakir Naik so much?

Why Muslims hate Zakir Naik so much?

This article is also available in Hindi at agniveer.com/3293/hate-zakir-hi/

Zakir Bhai MBBS aka Dr Zakir Naik has been among the most hated public figures of today. Deoband recently issued a fatwa against him. There is no doubt that Zakir Bhai is among the most smartly marketed religious celebrity of last few years. He claims to represent and propagate Islam. He considers himself a servant of Muhammad (pbuh). Yet it is the Muslims and Islamic clerics who hate Zakir Naik the most. (Why Muslims Hate Zakir Naik). In this post, I shall briefly list out reasons why Muslims hate Zakir Naik so much that many claim that he would be the first person to enter Dozakh (refer “We Hate Zakir Naik”)

Let me provide a brief background. Most people consider Islam to be the religion propagated by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and narrated in Kalam-e-Pak Quran. On surface it appears all so simple. Quran proclaims that one who submits to the word of final messenger of Allah shall achieve Heaven. But things are not so simple for a layman, and even a scholar. Because while there is only one Quran and one Prophet Muhammad, there is tremendous variety in the types of interpretations that so-called Muslims make out of this book and this great social-reformer.

In short, Islam is not as monolithic as it appears to be. The number of sects in Islam are more than 72 and they are as different from each other as dry is from wet and cold is from hot. All these sects have different customs, different levels of tolerances for non-Muslims, different food habits, different interpretations of Quran, different level of importance given to Muhammad and his associates and different descriptions of Heaven and Hell. The Shia-Sunni dispute is clearly known.

What makes the things even more confusing is the belief that of these 72+ sects only one is on path of truth and hence only one will go to Heaven. Rest go to Hell. Thus it is not sufficient to just be a Muslim to achieve Heaven, you need to follow only the right sect. Now each sect fights to prove that they are the genuine sect. Some sects are liberal enough to allow even non-Muslims to Heaven. Some Muslims are even promoters of vegetarianism. Some consider nation ahead of everything else. But there are some who believe that all except those who fully believe in their sect and its practices without questioning anything, alone will go to Heaven. Rest of all will be in Hell forever even if they do best of the deeds throughout their lives.

Among the most fanatic of these cults is the neo-Wahabi cult. This is supposed to be the producer of largest number of terrorists including Osama and Al Qaeda since its inception in 18th century and has been a cause of disgrace for rest of the peace-loving Muslims. Dr Zakir Naik belongs to this Wahabi cult, believes that only this Wahabi version of Islam can bring anyone close to Heaven, and rest of all will go to Hell. So as per Zakir Naik, Sufi will go Hell, Shia will go to Hell, Ismaili will go to Hell, Ahmadiyas will go to Hell, Hindu will go to Hell, Christian will go to Hell, Jew will go to Hell, And things are not as simple. Further, he mixes his Wahabism with material from other scholars of different sects to create his own Zakirism, that in the process blatantly insults and disgraces the vision of Islam as per other sects, including the more tolerant ones. His Zakirism goes to such extent that he does not even spare Wahabis from humiliations. Let us see how:

a. Zakir Bhai MBBS claims to be an expert of comparative religions. In his site, he has put lots of articles on comparative religions under his name. But in reality, they are merely word to word copy of texts from Qadiyani/Ahmadiyya sources. So what is wrong if one refers to Qadiyani or Ahmadiyya sources? Perhaps nothing, except that:

- Qadiyanis/ Ahmadiyyas are considered Kafirs and are prosecuted by most Muslims for their radical beliefs.

- Wahabis have been greatest enemies of Qadiyanis

- The content of the Qadiyani writings that Zakir Bhai MBBS has swindled under his own name are blatantly against core beliefs of rest of the Muslims including Wahabis. For example, Zakir Bhai MBBS tries to prove that Vedas prophecize about Muhammad. (This has been completely refuted in a three-part expose starting with this article)

Now this belief gels with the Qadiyani belief that Vedas were also revelations. But Wahabis and other sects refuse to believe so. Hence even Zakir Bhai MBBS writes in another article that he is not sure if Vedas are revelations. He conveniently forgets that he himself has proved that Vedas reveal Muhammad in another article! (Perhaps because he forgot to read it before asking his henchmen to copy from Qadiyani book and paste under his name in his site and books)

In summary, Zakir Bhai continues to use Qadiyani source to show his scholarly capabilities but refuses to accept Qadiyanis because he claims to be Wahabi and is funded by Wahabi militants.Or is he a Qadiyani spy in Wahabi disguise? Only Zakir Bhai knows the reality, but his acts suffice to invite hatred of Qadiyanis as well as other Muslim sects.

b. Zakir Bhai justifies non-vegetarianism as a scientific Islamic trait. While he does acknowledge that even a Muslim can be vegetarian, he attempts to justify meat-eating on crazy arguments including research by some farmers. (read the rebuttal here: (Zakir Bhai defends Halal meat). This catches ire of several progressive Muslims who refuse to believe that meat-eating has any association with religion. Many progressive Muslims have even started a Muslim Vegetarian Society that is among the most powerful protagonists of Vegetarianism and opponents of Halal meat. They have severely condemned Zakir Naik and his spurious research for disgracing Islam to justify the lust of his own tongue. (You can visit their site at www.islamveg.com/halalmeat.asp)

c. Being a Wahabi he has a soft corner for Osama Bin Laden. When someone questioned him on his views on Osama, he replied that he admires him because he has terrorized America! He shied away from criticizing terrorist activities of Osama. This created a lot of furore among Muslims and Deoband even issued a fatwa against Zakir Bhai for his tacit support for Osama Bin Laden. (Deobandi Fatwa against Zakir Bhai) Reasons are obvious – the money that funds Osama and money that funds Zakir Bhai have allegedly the same sources.Many terrorists caught in past few years have admitted that they were inspired by rhetoric of Zakir Bhai MBBS.

d. While on surface he claims to be a conservative Muslim, he wears a non-Islamic dress which has per Islamic hadiths would lead one to be treated as a non-Muslim during Judgment Day. Many devout Muslims thus consider their dress very seriously and hate Dr Zakir Naik for setting wrong examples by wearing Kafir dress of tie, suit and coat.

e. Wahabis have destroyed many Sufi shrines and even house of Prophet Muhammad because they believe these to be signs of idol worship. They killed many Muslim men, women and children in their campaigns to destroy tombs and holy places. (Refer wikipedia on Wahabism) In the same footsteps, Zakir Naik severely condemns these practices to be anti-muslim and hence is hated by those who worship graves, Sufis and tombs.


f. Shias obviously have a reason to hate Zakir Bhai MBBS because of his staunch anti-Shia stance, being a Wahabi. But his admiration of Yazeed, considered to be culprit for massacre of Karbala has been a strong point of contention for other Muslims. So much is the hatred against Yazeed that many curse by name of Yazeed.



g. Zakir justifies the ban on worship of other religions in Muslim countries. He however also justifies that Muslims should be allowed in other countries to promote their religion. The logic is curious – as per Zakir Bhai, in matters of religion, Muslims are the best. So they should be allowed everywhere – Muslim or non-Muslim countries. But non-Muslims should not be allowed to build places of worship in Muslim countries because their religions are inferior to Islam! Watch this video.

Such ultra-fanaticism irks the more progressive Muslims who want to integrate with rest of the world and rise above religious dogmas and hatred.

h. Being an ultra-conservative he propagates that despite a person being as much good or noble, unless he unconditionally accepts his version of Islam, he will go to Hell and Hell alone and forever. This goes against beliefs of more progressive Muslims who believe that all who act with genuineness, regardless of their religion will go to Heaven and not Hell.

i. Muslim women obviously have all the reasons to hate Zakir Bhai because in name of pseudo-science he is simply restricting their freedom that has been ordained by the Creator. For example, he states that Muslim women should always wear Hijab and Burqa and cover their entire body always. Medical researchers are worried that such unreasonable practices cause dreaded diseases due to lack of Vitamin D in Muslim countries which enforce such beliefs on women. More liberal Muslims see such insistence as dangerous dogma harming the cause of Muslims and Human Rights.

He further states that Muslim women should not work in offices because they may have chance to be alone with men even for a second. The only men that a woman is allowed to be alone with are her husband, very close relatives and those who have suckled her. Taking this crazy dogma of Zakir Bhai further, the Head of Hadith Department of the most reputed university of Islam in world recently issued a fatwa that Muslim women should allow their male colleagues to suckle them five times. This will allow them to work with these men, even when alone!

Zakir Bhai debars women from being any doctor except gynecologists because that is haram as per his version of Islam. Women should not take part in sports as well!

He further defends polygamy by furnishing false data on population but disallows polyandry.(Read this expose on his views on polygamy) . He goes to extent of suggesting that if one desires to marry again, he may not even seek consent of first wife. He may at best inform the first wife as good manners.

He justifies the belief that women are less intelligent than men and hence evidence of two women equal that of one man! He thus also justifies that women cannot inherit equal to their male counterparts!

No wonder, he would agree to dogma that to prove a rape, a woman should bring ample number of witnesses who have witnessed actual penetration!

The list can go on and on. So much that now even Wahabis have started calling Zakir Bhai a Shaitan. Read this.

And other sects who do not receive as much funding as Osama or Zakir Bhai try tooth and nail to debunk his fraud through all means.

They are even more upset by the fact that Zakir Naik does not even know how to read Arabic and merely imitates dialogues and manners of Ahmed Deedat, another preacher considered deviant by many scholars.

Watch

The process of seeking truth demands process of elimination. One may not be sure and continue to debate on which of the 72 or more sects of Islam would lead one to Heaven, or whether Quran itself is the authentic Quran and not the new Quran as created recently. One may not be sure whether a permanent Hell or Heaven, or Fairshtas or Jinnas exist in first place. One may doubt if Muhammad was a great non-divine social -reformer or actually a Messenger of Allah’s word. One can debate if Quran deserves to be final word of Allah and what should be its interpretation or what new good thing Quran provides which was not there in previous books. Everything in life must be questioned, analyzed, debated before accepting. That is what is called scientific spirit and that is what makes us humans.

But one fact is sure, there is not even a scope for debate, and certain persons should be out-rightly banished to Hell or hell-like place for benefit of rest of the civilized peaceful society. They include

- people who dare not condemn terrorists like Osama

- who consider that all except their sect will burn in permanent Hell despite how-so-much good they do in their lives

- who cannot tolerate others but want themselves to be tolerated everywhere

- who believe that women are inferior or bereft of intelligence

- who justify inferior rights and curtailment of freedom for women

- who refuse to change their stands despite presence of factual information proving the opposite

- who do not clear their stand and purely use material prepared by someone else to claim scholar status for self and yet condemn the source

Such terrorism sympathizers are threat for any civilized society. Progressive and even conservative Muslims have showed the right way by criticizing Zakir Naik so severely. The first and foremost religion of humans is humanity. The way noble-minded Muslims have shown courage and mettle to condemn the dangerous frauds of Zakir Bhai that are detrimental to entire humanity is warmly welcomed. Such steps in right direction pave way for right direction for seekers of true knowledge.

This article is also available in Hindi at agniveer.com/3293/hate-zakir-hi/