Dr Zakir Naik:
I was one of the first people amongst Deobandees to look at the Dawah of Dr Zakir Naik and contact Ulama (including
www.askimam.org). I had private discussions with then (student) Abu Hajira that in the Indian Muslim context his efforts should be praised and appreciated. The issue is about a Muslim against (Non-Muslims) of India.
The article is still here:
www.central-mosque.com/index.php/society/avoiding-dr-zaki...
As I began to view Peace TV and delve into Dr Zakir Naik and IRF, I began to get uneasy. They clearly have a divisive, corrosive, sectarian, communal and poisonous agenda. I then made contact with people on the ground in Mumbai and got to know about financial irregularities and fake stage sessions and drama long before Indian (citizens) through Indian Media got to know about it.[/quote]
Thanks for the third time.
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Based on new and irrefutable evidence, I had to change my view on Dr Zakir Naik. It would have been irresponsible, callous, careless, unethical and immoral for me not to do so. You seem to have not done your research and seem to be sticking to your original premise. As a professor, how can you accuse me of not being able to separate the wheat from the chaff? That is an absurd accusation. Your original accusation that my stance is guided by sectarian concerns (Ahl-e-Hadeeth vs Deoband) is even more absurd because you seem to be a bigger Deobandi then me? In the last 10 +years that you have interacted with me, when you have seen or viewed me to be a dogmatic Deobandi?[/quote]
I understand that you changed your stand on the basis of new data that you got. I respect your decision as I have always done. I also consider you a serious person and I give significant weight to your opinion. I do not consider you a dogmatic Deobandi. My suspicion of disliking Dr Zakir Naik on the basis of sectarian consideration is mainly directed at the normative Deoband crowd in general and my informants from Mumbai and not you.
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I also view Dr Zakir Naik t be coward who fled and left India and Indian Muslims and abandoned him when things got tough for him. You and Brother Abdur-Rahman disagree with that assessment and clam that it is pragmatism so let’s agree to disagree. I am saying (as someone who has been the victim and suffered) that Dr Zakir Naik has the unique position to raise funds, get a crack legal team and has the ability to make his voice heard despite IRF and Peace TV being shut down. Akhlaaq who was lynched does not!
My impression is that my view on Dr Zakir Naik's courage is not different from yours and hence we need not dissipate energy on it.
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I am perplexed as to why an Academic of your stature is so acute and obtuse in your vision that you cannot see this point? Effectively, it appears to be that you have given up on the hope and cause of Indian Muslims, there is no ray of light in your opinion and everything is (simply) futile. If Dr Zakir Naik with his resources cannot get justice then NO INDIAN MUSLIM can!
Please convert your distress at the low level of my optimism about the situation of Indian Muslims into a new data point, a new piece of info about the ground reality. For your benefit I shall repeat the info once again.
(1) Many Muslims who were falsely accused of indulgence in terror related offences have been freed by the Indian courts because of lack of credible evidence against them. You are taking it as symptomatic of the good health of Indian judicial system. I most respectfully desire and beg to differ. This is more symptomatic of the growing rot in Indian law enforcing machinary - the executive where innocent Muslims can be put behind the bar for extended periods without any offence.
(2) After the most heinous killing of Graham Steines with his son by putting the van carrying them on fire the Christians took to the courts. In this regards two separate court verdicts deserve our special attention. One court ruled that people (read Christians specifically and Muslims by implication) can not exercise the right to propagate their religion by converting Indians to their religion if there is a fear of public outrage. Now this public outrage can always be manufactured and hence effectively the judge from the majority community simply struck down once and for all a provision in Indian constitution. May I most humbly request you not to take this info as another kilogram in a ton of dry and dull discourse but as symptomatic of how Indian judiciary is slowly but surely inclining towards the Hindu Rashtra. And for the sake of Allah SWT do not try to cast me or any one of my Indian brothers and sisters into a cage where we look like having lost faith in Indian judiciary. It, Indian judiciary, is wonderful and world class but not when it comes to conversions, Hashimpura, Maliyana, the communal riots, the anti-Muslim pogroms, Muslims accused of being involved in terror related offences, cases of riot affected Muslims.
(3) When it came to the case of riot affected Muslims a senior professor Dr Iqbal Ahmed Ansari from our university spent a life time in trying to get justice for the victims. In my view he was amongst rare Muslims who did this work but it required enormous amount of courage. May I add that he tried to do what he did only because there were many courageous Hindu friends who always stood with him. Now that he is gone for some time there is no one to take his place and the most common names in this reagrd, relief for riot affected Muslims, are Hindus like Teesta Seetalwad and late Mukul Sinha.
(4) I am sorry to inform you that it is pointless to chatise me for my academic rigor or courage or lack there of. I not only right but also read what other write and let me assure you that I do not know anyone who asserts more than me in my own circles. If I was writing in Hindi I would not have managed even this much. Same goes for the case if I would have been writing in general public circles and not in a selected Facebook circle.
(5) Every single one of my Muslim friend in my personal circle has that look on his face that I am not well connected with the ground reality and live in some fool's paradise. Thre is precisely one ( a Barelwi) friend who operates at the same level of courage as I do and I will not be surprised if one day he tells me that his courage is derived from me.
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Aqeedah:
I respectfully submit that you are being disingenuous here and going out of your way to sidestep a fundamental Aqeedah point which goes against you.
Hindi: A person of Indian origin
Hindu: A person who follow Hinduism
I believe that a person of significant Academic stature and learning such as yourself, knows it. Instead of coming clean and informing many (common) Muslims that YES it is an error, you have taken a diplomatic way out and said that you are a Hindi. I don’t believe that you can possibly and sincerely advocate or articulate the position that Indian “Muslims” are Hindu.
I have always respected you for your stature and courage but your accusations are unfounded and unsubstantiated. Your responses also don’t befit your stature as a leading (Muslim) Academic.
