Dr Zakir Naik highlights events of leaving India

Karachi: The prominent religious scholar Dr Zakir Naik has revealed that he did not leave India but was performing Umrah in 2016 when he was told by a team of lawyers that it was not safe for him to go to India anymore.

Dr Zakir Naik said: “I have been preaching Islam since 1991, during this period many non-Muslims became Muslims after listening to my speeches and our program started gaining popularity. 25 percent of the crowd of this program used to be non-Muslims, who started liking me and it was against the agenda of the Indian government. They started looking for excuses against me”.

He stated that the Indian government got this opportunity during the attack of extremists in Dhaka in July 2016 in which three terrorists were involved. After this a report said that one of these terrorists was a follower of Zakir Naik and it was him who inspired this terrorist. ‘However, despite this, I was supported by many Indians. After that in November of the same year, when the Muslims of India were once again trapped in the cycle of uniform civil code, I had gone to perform Umrah and I was told by my lawyers not to come to India. It was not that I had left India, I had gone for Umrah and when the accusations started against me, I never thought of going back to India’.

The well-known scholar added that during the following years 2017 and 2019, India tried many tricks by applying to Interpol but all of them failed. Meanwhile 15 countries offered him permanent residence and among all, he found Malaysia to be the best country because the Muslims there can express their opinions openly and he chose that country.

It is pertinent to note that Dr Zakir Naik is on a visit to Pakistan these days and while speaking at an event, he talked about leaving India.