Digvijay Singh calls Zakir Naik a 'peace messenger'

A four-year-old video of Congress MP Digvijay Singh praising controversial Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Naik as a "peace messenger" has recently surfaced sparking a debate across the country. 

 

The imam, with whom Digvijay shared the stage in 2012, is reported to have inspired one of the five Bangladeshi militants involved in the Dhaka carnage through his "hate speeches".

 

 

Digvijay, today, in his tweet said, "If the Government of India or the Government of Bangladesh has any evidence against Zakir Naik's involvement with ISIS they should take action against him."

 

The imam may actually face some action, even as the Shiv Sena on Wednesday demanded a ban on his organisation.
 

 

The new information and broadcasting minister, M Venkaiah Naidu, when asked about Naik's speeches said, "We have time to study all these aspects". Union minister Rijiju added that India has good relations and mutual understanding with Bangladesh, especially in the matter of co-operation on fighting terrorism.

 

"Terror can be defeated only through close coordination and by fighting together (against it)," he said.
    

Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star had reported that militant Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader, ran propaganda on Facebook last year, quoting Naik.
    

Naik, in his lecture aired on Peace TV, an international Islamic channel, had reportedly "urged all Muslims to be terrorists".
    

Naik, a popular but controversial Islamic orator and founder of the Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, is banned in the UK and Canada for his 'hate speech' aimed at other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.
    

He is hugely popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV, although his preachings often demean other religions and even other Muslim sects, the report said.
     

Sena MP Arvind Sawant said he had written to the Union Home Minister, demanding a ban on Nayek and Islamic Research Foundation, in the country's interest.

   

"Zakir Nayek's speech is a matter of concern for us. Our agencies are working on this. But as a minister, I will not comment what action will be taken," Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju told reporters in Delhi.
     

 
"People whose language propagates violence against nation's unity should be banned," Sawant said in the letter.
     

"Islam teaches love and peace. But everyday is a day of high alert now. I appeal to the Home Minister that action needs to be taken," he said.
     

Mansoor Shaikh, the manager of Islamic Research Foundation, denied that Naik had endorsed terrorism in his speeches.
     

Islamist gunmen stormed a popular restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave late on Friday and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners.