Ban on the organization of religious preacher Zakir Naik extended for 5 years

Ban on the organization of religious preacher Zakir Naik extended for 5 years.

New Delhi: The Center on Monday extended a five-year ban on the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), headed by Indian-born preacher Zakir Naik, currently based in Malaysia.

The Islamic Research Foundation was first declared an illegal organization under the Illegal Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 (37 of 1967) by the central government on November 17, 2016.

In a notification, the Union Interior Ministry said that the Islamic Research Foundation has engaged in activities that are detrimental to the country’s security and have the potential to disrupt communal peace and harmony and disrupt the secular fabric of the country. .

The central government is of the opinion that the Islamic Research Foundation and its members, in particular the founder and president, Zakir Abdul Karim Naik, aka Zakir Naik, have been encouraging and helping their followers to promote or attempt to promote, on religious grounds, disharmony. or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will between different communities and religious groups that are detrimental to the integrity and security of the country, he said.

The Home Office said that Naik’s statements and speeches are objectionable and subversive and through them, he has been promoting enmity and hatred between religious groups and inspiring young people of a particular religion in India and the foreigner to commit terrorist acts.

Naik also makes radical statements and speeches to millions of people around the world through the international network of satellite television, the Internet, print, and social media, he said.

The central government is further of the opinion that if the illegal activities of the IRF are not stopped and controlled immediately, it will seize the opportunity to continue its subversive activities and reorganize its activists who are still on the run, said.

The ministry said Naik’s activities will alter the secular fabric of the country by polluting people’s minds by creating community disharmony, spreading anti-national sentiments, escalating secessionism by supporting militancy, and some people may undertake activities that are detrimental to sovereignty, the integrity. and country security.

The notification said that the central government is also of the opinion that with regard to the activities of the Islamic Research Foundation, it is necessary to declare the association illicit with immediate effect.

Taking all these aspects into account, the Interior Ministry said, it has decided to extend the ban imposed on the Islamic Research Foundation under UAPA for another five years.