Should the Congress have exercised caution while accepting a Rs 50 lakh donation from Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation (IRF)?
At the time when this unsolicited, stray donation was received by the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust many many years ago, one would have to be a soothsayer or an astrologer because the donor organisation was not on any suspect list or watch list.Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Spokesperson, Congress
Forget astrology, just a little fact/background check or a phone call to then Home Minister P Chidambaram would have helped. On 18 June, 2010, the UK banned Zakir Naik from entering their country, in response to his infamous speech in praise of Osama Bin Laden...
No Entry in UK
The IRF donation, which the Congress claims has since been returned, was made in 2011 during the second term of the UPA government. But a full year earlier, the UK had barred Zakir Naik from entering the country for a peace conference. The then Home Secretary and now the Prime Minister, Theresa May had justified her decision saying “numerous comments made by Dr Naik are evidence to me of his unacceptable behaviour. I am not willing to allow those who might not be conducive to the public good to enter the UK.”
The law invoked against the preacher can exclude anyone who “foments, justifies or glorified terrorist violence.”
In his defense, Dr Zakir Naik argued that “when a person becomes popular, there are bound to be people against him, irrespective of whether they are doing good work or bad work”. To make his point, he seems to compare himself with Prophet Mohammad and Jesus Christ “who according to a study are believed to be the most influential figures in history.”
Barred From Canada Also in 2010
Three days later, the organisers of the Muslim Canadian Congress were told that Dr Naik would be stopped at the airport. His views on Christanity, Jews and the gay community were found to be objectionable.
A now defunt Facebook page ‘Keep Zakir Naik out of Canada’ was launched that came down hard on the preacher’s views on Western women “who make themselves susceptible to rape by wearing revealing clothes” and even “light beating for wives”.
Dr Zakir Naik claims the excessive number of females across the world and homosexuality to justify polygamy.
New York alone has one million females more than males. Out of the population of New York – the statistics tell us – one third are gays. ‘Gays’ means Sodomites...That means they wouldn’t like to have females as life partners. There are more than 25 million gays, Sodomites, in America, in the USA.Dr Zakir Naik
Terror Inspiration in 2009...
If not the entry ban by UK and Canada, the Congress would surely have heard about the 2009 New York subway bombing plot and one of its chief conspirators, Najibullah Zazi. The Afghan-American who was 24-years-old at the time was arrested for conspiring to detonate explosives inside the New York city subway during peak hours. Zazi , according to 2010 news reports, used to like listening to Zakir Naik’s sermons.
... in 2007
In June 2007, Kafeel Ahmad, an Indian raised in Saudi Arabia, drove a heavily armed Cherokee jeep along with one other person into the Glasgow International Airport. He was suspected of being involved in the London car bombings and the 2005 Indian Institute of Science shooting. He was also a keen listener of Zakir Naik’s sermons.
...And in 2006
The mastermind of the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, Rahil Sheikh reportedly named Zakir Naik as an inspiration. On 11 July 2006, seven serials blasts ripped through Mumbai’s suburban railway network, leaving 189 people dead.
If the Congress spokespersons are to be believed, the link between three extremists and Dr Zakir Naik escaped the notice of the party, which incidentally was in government at the time.
The BJP government has suspended four MHA officials for renewing the FCRA license to Zakir Naik’s NGO that allows it to receive foreign funding under Indian law. Today, the party lashed out at the Congress accusing it of accepting the Rs 50 lakh donation as a “bribe to shelter his (Naik) illegal and anti-national activities.”
The TV evangelist who makes it a point to mention his 14,000 followers on Facebook in every media interaction has, in an open letter, equated the government arestrictions on foreign funding for his NGO to an “unspeakable injustice to 20 crore Indian Muslims.”
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