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What have I done to earn the tag of ‘Dr Terror’? asks televangelist
MUMBAI: Controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, facing the allegation of ‘radicalising’ youths, on Saturday asked the government what exactly has he done to get
MUMBAI: Controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, facing the allegation of ‘radicalising’ youths, on Saturday asked the government what exactly has he done to get the tag of “Dr Terror” and sought “logical answers” to charges levelled against him.
In a four-page “open letter” released here, Naik posed five questions to the government as to what he has done to earn the tags of “terror preacher”, “Dr Terror”.
“Why now? I have been preaching for 25 years not just in India but across the world. What exactly did I do now to earn the tags of ‘terror preacher’, ‘Dr Terror’? Of 150 countries where I am respected, I am called a ‘terrorist influencer’ in my own country. What an irony!” the 50-year-old televangelist asked.
“Despite exhaustive investigations, not a single conclusive evidence of wrong doing was reported by any governmental agency. But now investigators are being asked to repeat and continue the probe. Why?” he sought to know.
On the government’s action against his NGO, he asked why would the government renew IRF’s FCRA registration and then cancel it? And that it seemed “illogical”.
“Is there design to leaking confidential information of the government, solicitor-general and the MHA? Is there a design to leaking selective government documents to the media?” the letter said. Naik, a medical doctor-turned Salafist preacher, said the entire row in the last few months have come as a “shock” to him and termed it as “murder of democracy”.
“This is not just an attack on me, it is an attack against Indian Muslims. And it is an attack against peace, democracy and justice,” Naik wrote in the letter.
