The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that it imposed a five-year ban on Islamic preacher Zakir Naik’s NGO, the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), for making derogatory statements against Hindu gods and extolling Al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden, who was killed in Abbotabad by the U.S. forces.
In a notification issued on Thursday, days after the Union Cabinet cleared the ban against the IRF, the Ministry said that the IRF and its members, particularly, the founder and president Zakir Naik, have been encouraging and aiding followers to promote or attempt to promote, on grounds of religion, disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious communities.
‘Subversive statements’“The Central government has received information that the statements and speeches made by Zakir Naik, the president of IRF, are objectionable and subversive in nature as he has been extolling the known terrorists like Osama Bin Laden, proclaiming that every Muslim should be a terrorist and claiming that if Islam had indeed wanted, 80 per cent of the Indian population would not have remained Hindu as they could have been converted ‘if we wanted’ by the sword, justifying the suicide bombings, posting objectionable comments against Hindu Gods, claiming that the Golden Temple may not be as sacred as Mecca and Medina and making other statements which are derogatory to other religions,” the notification said.
It also said that the Kerala police had in July 2016 arrested Arshi Qureshi, an employee of the IRF for promoting hatred and ill-will between different religious communities and forcible conversion of 21 Kerala men and women, who went missing and are suspected to have joined the Islamic State in Afghanistan.
