Maharashtra police may interrogate Zakir Naik

MUMBAI: Maharashtra police may question controversial preacher Zakir Naik on the antecedents of Islamic scholars who visit his schools in India on suspicion that some of them may have made inflammatory speeches or supported terrorists in the past.

Police officials claim that some scholars who teach in Naik’s schools in Mumbai and Chennai have either supported Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda or praised jihad.

Zakir Naik, who was accused by the Bangladesh government of being the inspiration behind the terrorist attacks in Dhaka earlier this month runs the Islamic International School in the two Indian cities and also operates the television channel Peace TV.

Bilal Phillips, a Canadian-Muslim preacher who speaks on the channel and interacts with the students, is an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 attempted bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York, police say. Phillips lives in Qatar and has been banned from visiting many countries including UK, Australia and Germany.

In 2014, police officials in Prague, Czech Republic, arrested the publisher of a book authored by Phillips claiming that it incites ‘xenophobia and violence’. In September 2014, he was detained in Phillipines and questioned for his possible links with terror groups. He was later deported back to Canada.

Abdur Raheem Green, a UK citizen and another frequent visitor and speaker, has made statements like ‘fighting for Jihad is the surest way to reach paradise’ in the past. Police say the presence of these speakers on Peace TV shows that Naik is not genuine about his statement that he is against terrorism. These scholars have preached anything but peace, a Mumbai police official said. “It is not a coincidence that all of these speakers speak favourably about Osama bin Laden. In fact, all of them deny that Osama bin Laden did 9/11,” a top Mumbai police official said.