The Indian government has banned Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation (NGO) as an outlawed organisation for five years, Indian media reports say.
According to Times of India, the ban has been enforced under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and approved at a meeting of the Union Cabinet.
TOI had earlier reported that the government intended to ban IRF+ citing Naik’s “objectionable and subversive” speeches, the criminal cases filed against him and other members of IRF in Mumbai and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra and Kerala, as well as his “dubious” links with Peace TV that allegedly features “communal” and “pro-jihad” content as grounds for such a ban.
An ‘unlawful’ association is different from a ‘terrorist’ organisation listed under UAPA. The law defines ‘unlawful association’ as any organisation “which has for its object any activity that is punishable under Section 153A or 153B of IPC” – provisions dealing with threat to social and communal harmony.
The Indian Home Ministry claimed that Zakir Naik’s NGO was propagating terrorism.
A medical doctor by professional training, Dr Zakir Naik is renowned as an orator on Islam and Comparative Religion. He is the President of Islamic Research Foundation, Mumbai, India.
Naik is the ideologue and driving force behind Peace TV Network. He launched Peace TV English, in January 2006, and the channel claims that it is the largest watched ‘Islamic’ as well as ‘any Religious’ Satellite TV channel presently in the world.
