Zakir Naik

Zakir Abdul Karim Naik is an Indian Islamic preacher (da'i) and physician, born in Bombay (Mumbai), Maharashtra, on 18 October 1965. He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and founded the Peace TV satellite network, launched on 21 January 2006; he is nicknamed "Deedat Plus" for following Ahmed Deedat's approach to comparative-religion debating. ^{1 2}

He became known for lectures delivered in English, wearing a suit and tie, quoting from the scriptures of several religions, and is said in the article to have delivered over 4,000 lectures around the world as of 2016. ¹

Since 2016 Naik has lived outside India: in that year the Indian government accused him of propagating hate speech and money laundering, banned the Islamic Research Foundation and Peace TV broadcasting; Naik denies all charges, did not return to India, and became a permanent resident of Malaysia; the article describes him as currently a wanted fugitive in India. ¹

Naik was born to Abdul Karim Naik and Roshan Naik. He attended Kishinchand Chellaram College, studied medicine at the Topiwala National Medical College & BYL Nair Charitable Hospital, and obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) from the University of Mumbai. ^{1 2}

Naik began working in the field of dawah in 1991, inspired by Ahmed Deedat, whom he met in 1987. Deedat labelled him "Deedat plus" in 1994, and in May 2000 awarded him a plaque engraved: "Son, what you have done in 4 years had taken me 40 years to accomplish." ¹

He founded the Islamic International School in Mumbai and United Islamic Aid, which provides scholarships for poor Muslim youth; his wife, Farhat Naik, heads the women's section of the Islamic Research Foundation; they have three children. ¹

His well-known debates and dialogues include a 1994 debate on Taslima Nasreen's novel Lajja, the April 2000 dialogue with William Campbell in Chicago, "The Qur'an and the Bible: In the Light of Science", an inter-religious dialogue with Ravi Shankar in Bangalore on 21 January 2006, and an address to the Oxford Union by video link in February 2011. ¹

Peace TV was founded on 21 January 2006 by the Islamic Research Foundation — a non-profit Emirati satellite network based in Dubai, described in the article as one of the world's largest religious satellite television networks; Peace TV Urdu, Peace TV Bangla and Peace TV Chinese followed. ¹

In March 2021 he launched the Al Hidaayah platform for Islamic education and entertainment online, describing it as a "halal version of Netflix" — his claim, as the article attributes it. ¹

His books, as the article lists them, include The Qur'an & Modern Science: Compatible or Incompatible?; The Quran and The Bible in The Light of Science; Answers To Non Muslims Common Questions About Islam; The Concept of GOD in Major Religions; Similarities Between Hinduism & Islam; Rights of Women in Islam: Modern Or Outdated?; and Is Non-Vegetarian Food Permitted or Prohibited for the Human Being?. ¹

Naik received the Sharjah Award for Voluntary Work in 2013, the Dubai International Holy Quran Award as Islamic Personality of the Year in 2013, and the King Faisal Prize for Service to Islam in 2015. ^{1 2}

The Indian Express ranked him 82nd on its list of the 100 most powerful Indians in 2009 and 89th in 2010. ¹

This section sets out different positions as reported in the sources. It is not a verdict by the museum.

Approach and views. His work centres on comparative religion. The article records that he does not claim to be a follower of any one school of thought in Islam, but is considered most closely associated with the Salafi school of thought. His reported positions include opposing dancing and singing and equating music with alcohol, supporting hand-amputation for theft and recommending it to the United States, a death-penalty position for apostates who "propagate the non-Islamic faith and speak against Islam" — with the article also recording his statement that there is no death penalty for apostasy as such — and denial of evolution. ¹

On jihad and terrorism. In lectures the article quotes, Naik said that the killing of any innocent person, Muslim or not, is prohibited by Islam, that jihad means striving to make society better, and he called the Islamic State "the anti-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria". At the same time, he promotes the conspiracy theory that US President George W. Bush planned the September 11 attacks, calling it "an inside job" — a position the US Department of State denounced as "reprehensible". The article also quotes his 1996 statement that "every Muslim should be a terrorist" to anti-social elements, and his 2010 statement that he had been quoted out of context. ¹

Criticism from Indian scholars and writers. Praveen Swami calls him "perhaps the most influential Salafi ideologue in India", and Sadanand Dhume writes of his "carefully crafted image of moderation". Darul Uloom Deoband issued fatwas against him and described him as a self-styled preacher unattached to any of the four orthodox Sunni schools of jurisprudence; in 2016 a Deoband spokesman clarified that a few fatwas had been issued on legal matters and were being "deliberately highlighted" by the media, and its deputy vice chancellor, Abdul Khaliq Madrasi, supported him, saying: "We have bad differences of opinion with Zakir Naik. But he is recognized as an Islamic scholar the world over. We don't believe that he could be connected with terrorism in any way." ¹

The 2016 Dhaka attack and its aftermath. After the July 2016 Dhaka attack, The Daily Star reported that one attacker had followed Naik's page and been influenced by his speeches; the newspaper later apologised to Naik, stating that it never blamed him for the attack. The Maharashtra State Intelligence Department gave him a clean chit after two days, finding no other strong evidence linking him to terror-related activities; the Bangladesh government nevertheless banned the broadcast of Peace TV. ¹

Peace TV is banned in India, Bangladesh, Canada, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom under hate-speech laws, according to the article, while the Peace TV app is not blocked in the same countries. ^{1 2}

In June 2010 he was denied entry into the United Kingdom and Canada; his application for judicial review of the UK exclusion was dismissed on 5 November 2010. On 18 July 2017 India revoked his passport on the National Investigation Agency's recommendation, and the NIA declared him an offender and began attaching his assets. Interpol refused India's requests for a red notice three times for insufficient evidence — in December 2017, July 2019 and again in 2021, the last adjudicating panel noting that his raising money from his religious teachings and spending it "is irrelevant and cannot amount to money laundering". On 13 May 2020 the Indian government sent a formal extradition request to Malaysia, which was later rejected. ¹

Naik argues that his comments have been taken out of context multiple times and denies all the charges against him. ¹

In Malaysia, after an 8 August 2019 lecture in Kelantan, citizens lodged 115 police complaints over his remarks about the Chinese and Hindu communities; seven of Malaysia's thirteen states barred him from public speaking, and on 20 August 2019 the police imposed a nationwide speaking ban, according to the article; Naik apologised, maintaining that his statements had been taken out of context and that it was never his intention to upset any individual or community. ¹

The article's infobox, as opened in October 2026, gives his YouTube channel "Dr Zakir Naik" 4.42 million subscribers and 315 million views — dated platform figures that change constantly, which the museum records only with their date. ¹

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.