Zakir Naik Zakir Abdul Karim Naik (born 18 October 1965) is an Indian public speaker on the subject of Islam and comparative religion. He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), a non-profit organization that owns the Peace TV channel based in Dubai, UAE. He is sometimes referred to as a televangelist. Before becoming a public speaker, he trained as a medical doctor. He has written two booklets on Islam and comparative religion. He is regarded as an exponent of the Salafi ideology. Biography Zakir Abdul Karim Naik was born on 18 October 1965 in Mumbai, Maharastra, India. He attended St. Peters High School in Mumbai. Later he enrolled at Kishinchand Chellaram College, before studying medicine at Topiwala National Medical College and Nair Hospital and later the University of Mumbai, where he obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS). His wife, Farhat Naik, works for the womens section of the IRF. In 1991 he started working in the field of Dawah, and founded the IRF. Naik says he was inspired by Ahmed Deedat, an Islamic preacher, having met him in 1987. (Naik is sometimes referred to as Deedat plus, a label given to him by Deedat himself.) Naik says that his goal is to concentrate on the educated Muslim youth who have become apologetic about their own religion and have started to feel the religion is outdated. He considers it a duty of every Muslim to remove perceived misconceptions about Islam and to counter what he views as the Western medias anti-Islamic bias in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Some of his articles are published in magazines such as Islamic Voice. Anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen has written that Naiks style of memorising the Quran and Hadith literature in various languages, and his related missionary activity, has made him extremely popular in Muslim and non-Muslim circles.[10] Many of his debates are recorded and widely distributed in video and DVD media and online. His talks are usually recorded in English and broadcast on weekends on several cable networks in Mumbais Muslim neighbourhoods, and on the Peace TV channel, which he co-produces. Topics he speaks on include: Islam and Modern Science, Islam and Christianity, and Islam and secularism. Naik is the founder of the Islamic International School in Mumbai. Lectures and debates Naik has held many debates and lectures around the world. One of Naiks most-cited debates was with William Campbell in Chicago in April 2000 on the topic of The Quran and the Bible: In the Light of Science. Naik has said that despite the strident anti-Islam campaign, 34,000 Americans have embraced Islam from September 2001 to July 2002. He says Islam is a religion of reason and logic, and that the Quran contains 1000 verses relating to science, which he says explains the number of Western converts. He argues that scientific theories were prophesized by the Quran. For example, he says certain verses of the Quran accurately describe embryological development. On 21 January 2006 Naik held an inter-religious dialogue with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Bangalore about the concept of God in Islam and Hinduism. In February 2011 Naik addressed the Oxford Union via video link from India. Peace conference Every year since November 2007 Naik has led a 10-day Peace Conference at Somaiya Ground, Sion, Mumbai. Lectures on Islam have been presented by Naik and twenty other Islamic speakers.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 06:33:55 +0000
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