Saudi Arabian media is reporting that a controversial Indian televangelist once banned from the UK for comments supporting Osama Bin Laden is speaking Thursday in Riyadh in a talk organized by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). According to a Saudi Arabia News report:
Zakir Naik
January 24, 2014 The World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), an international Islamic educational organization with headquarters in Riyadh, will organize a public talk entitled ‘Qur’an and modern science’ by renowned public speaker and Islamic scholar, Zakir Naik, on Jan. 30 at the King Fahd cultural center in Riyadh.
Naik heads the Dubai-based Peace TV and the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) in Mumbai and is very popular among the new generation for his work in propagating Islam. WAMY’s objective is to establish a platform where Muslim youth can get together in an Islamic environment. Naik once famously said that the Qur’an spoke of scientific processes 1,400 years ago. ‘The Qur’an is not a book of science, but a divine book. There are more than 6,000 verses in the Qur’an and 1,000 of them speak about science,’ he said.
During his Ramadan forum at the Dubai World Trade Center, he said the Qur’an revealed accurate details about aspects of embryology, oceanology, astronomy and other scientific disciplines. ‘The Qur’an says the embryo develops into a tube-like lump — the fetus — and is clothed with flesh. It is then given hearing and sight. We now know that the first senses to develop are hearing and then sight,’ he said.
Salim Zubedi, IRF representative in Riyadh, told Arab News on Thursday: ‘Naik will be here for a public talk, in which non-Muslim people are special invitees.’ He said special arrangements had been made for ladies and that entry to the program is free of charge. Naik has also authored several publications on Islam and comparative religion.”
Our predecessor publication reported in June 2010 that the The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) in the UK and Ireland, part of the UK Muslim Brotherhood, had issued a statement condemning the decision by the Home Office to ban Dr. Naik from visiting the UK.
Canadian media has reported on some of the incendiary comments that have been made by Dr. Naik who was also banned from entering Canada:
An Indian Muslim televangelist who was banned from Britain last week for “unacceptable behaviour” will not be allowed into Canada to speak at an upcoming conference in Toronto, sources familiar with the situation have told the National Post.
Dr. Zakir Naik, who has said “every Muslim should be a terrorist” and that Jews are “our staunchest enemy,” was to headline next month’s Journey of Faith Conference — which is billed as one of North America’s largest Islamic conferences and is expected to attract upward of 10,000 people.
Dr. Naik, the Mumbai-based founder of Peace TV and a widely respected lecturer in India, has a laundry list of views that could have led to his exclusion from the U.K. and Canada, both of which require an Indian citizen to obtain a visitor visa.
The 44-year-old medical doctor recommends capital punishment for homosexuals and the death penalty for those who abandon Islam as their faith.
He has said that a man is within his right to beat his wife “lightly,” though in a July 2009 YouTube video he cautioned against hitting her on the face or leaving a mark.
Muslim Brothers were instrumental in the founding of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) and the organization continues to enjoy close relations with the global Muslim Brotherhood. U.S. government agencies and officials have argued that WAMY has helped spread Islamic extremism around the world as well as sponsoring terrorism in places such as Bosnia, Israel, and India. In May 2013, Ahram Online published a very useful history of the tumultuous and sometimes difficult to understand relationship between Saudi Arabia and the Global Muslim Brotherhood.
