New Delhi: The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) today condemned the media campaign against Dr. Zakir Naik, a medical practitioner-turned-preacher, and called it a conspiracy hatched up by the saffron brigade supported by its cohorts in the media to malign Dr. Naik.
Elyas Thumbe, national general secretary of SDPI in a statement said that the Union Government has started a crackdown on Dr Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and Peace TV with the aid of a section of prejudiced media who are showing his statements cut in half and false allegations are being made against him since he speaks with evidence that idol worship is not allowed even in Hinduism and advocates monotheism.
“ He is a well-known orator in comparative religion. Let police and government agencies carry on proper investigation. It is a sad commentary by some anchors of news channels who want action against Dr. Naik without any inquiry, whatsoever”, he said.
Thumbe said propagation of mass lies and falsehood without any investigation can never be a criterion to defeat truth and justice. Dr. Zakir Naik always told people of all religions to forget their differences and come together based on commonality between them. He always advocated Muslims to spread peace to all. He never said to blow up innocents in the name of terrorism.
Thumbe expressed concern that BJP in power at the Centre and in Maharashtra is clearly making Dr. Zakir Naik a scapegoat, who is a man of impeccable knowledge, not only Islam, but Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity as well.
“Dr. Naik always gives evidential references from Vedas and compares the present day followings with what is written in their scriptures. But it seems like RSS wants to keep Hindus away from gaining knowledge of Vedas and Upanishads so they do not open their mind and think. Dr. Naik’s only fault is that he makes best attempts to open peoples mind which could get them out of their superstitious religiosity and this is not digestible to RSS and its affiliates”, he added.
He further said that if one imagines police found a copy of “My Experiments with Truth” with a terrorist, then only a morally depraved person or a person with evil intentions can interpret as Mahatma Gandhi inspired him to be a terrorist.
“If a non-Muslim does something bad it is termed crime. However, if a Muslim commits the same crime he is labelled terrorist. So, Modi’s mere words disassociating religion from terrorism would not suffice unless acted upon so that this double standard could be removed”, he concluded.
