Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Zakir Naik
Zakir Naik
Religion Islam
Website
IRF.net
PeaceTV
Zakir Abdul Karim Naik Hindi: जािकर अबदुल करीम नायक; born 18 October 1965) is a Muslim
public speaker, and writer on the subject of Islam and other comparative religion. Naik is a
medical doctor by profession, having attained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) from
the University of Mumbai. [1][2]
Naik is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF),[1][3] a non-profit
organization which also owns and broadcasts the free-to-air global Peace TV channel from
Mumbai.
Content
• 1 Biography
• 2 Lectures and debates
○ 2.1 Peace Conferences
○ 2.2 Writings
• 3 Criticism
○ 3.1 Fatwas
• 4 References
• 5 External links
Biography
Naik was born in Mumbai, India.[4] He attended St. Peter's High School (ICSE) in the city of
Mumbai. Later he joined the Kishinchand Chellaram College and then studied medicine at
Topiwala National Medical College and Nair Hospital in his native city and received his MBBS
degree from the University of Mumbai. In 1991 he started working in the field of Da'wah, or
proselytizing Islam.
Naik says he was inspired by the late Ahmed Deedat,[5] who had been active in the field of
Da'wah for more than 40 years. [6] According to Naik, 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religion is outdated",[7] He considers it a duty of every Muslim to remove perceived
misconceptions about Islam to counter, what he views as the Western media’s anti-Islamic bias
in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks upon the United States.[8] He has lectured
and authored several books on Islam and comparative religion,[9] as well as those directed
towards removing misconceptions about Islam.[10][11] Some of his articles are also published in
Indian magazines like the Islamic Voice.[12][13][14]
Anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen has written[7] that Naik's style of memorizing the Qur'an
and hadith literature in various languages and related missionary activity has made him
extremely popular in Muslim and non-Muslim circles.[7] Many of his debates are recorded and
widely distributed in video and DVD media as well as online. His talks are usually recorded in
English, to be broadcast at weekends on several cable networks in Mumbai's Muslim
neighborhoods, and on the channel Peace TV, which he co-promotes.[3][15] Topics he speaks on
include: "Islam and Modern Science", "Islam and Christianity", and "Islam and secularism".
In an issue of Indian Express dated 22 February 2009, in a list of “100 Most Powerful Indians in
2009” Naik was ranked #82. In the special list of the "Top 10 Spiritual Gurus of India" Naik was
ranked #3, after Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and was the only Muslim on that list.
[citation needed]
External links
• Islamic Research Foundation (official website)
• Peace TV (official website)
• Here’s Zakir Naik, ‘Fundamentalist, not Fanatic’ Mumbai Newsline
• Second opinion: Zakir Naik’s ‘reverse orientalism’ —Khaled Ahmed’s TV Review