Quora Answer: Should Zakir ‘Abd al-Karim Nayk’s Speeches be Viewed as Inflammatory?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Should Zakir ‘Abd al-Karim Nayk’s speeches be viewed as inflammatory?” 

Zakir Abd al-Karim Nayk is a self-proclaimed expert of religions who has made a career bashing Christianity, and to a lesser extent, Hinduism.  He is not trained in the theology of these religions, and has no knowledge of the languages of their scripture, whether Koine Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, or Sanskrit.  But that never stopped him from deliberately mischaracterising the theological and jurisprudential positions of two major world religions. 

Zakir is also not a scholar of Islam.  He does not know Arabic, but that has not stopped him from claiming to be some sort of expert on Islam.  He has used his so-called credentials as a Muslim preacher to advance the positions of the Wahhabi sect, and attack mainstream Islam. 

There is no shortage of videos or material online and elsewhere highlighting the multitude of controversial, outrageous, and outright fallacious statements of Zakir.  His lies have been refuted by both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars.  Some of his gems include: 

1. Non-Muslims should not be allowed to build places of worship in “Muslim” lands;

2. Girls should be denied education;

3. Suicide bombing may be justified;

4. Muslims may keep slaves and rape them;

5. Wife-beating is justified;

6. Using condoms is akin to committing murder;

7. Homosexuals and transsexuals should be killed;

8. Stoning for adultery is acceptable;

9. Sufism is a heresy, and Sufis should be killed;

10. Wishing non-Muslims for their festivities, even attending birthday celebrations, is an endorsement of “polytheism”;

11. Every Muslim should be a terrorist, and instill terror in the hearts of non-Muslims;

12. He supports the destruction of places of worship, and artifacts in Muslim lands;

13. People who leave Islam should be killed;

14. Music is haram; and

15. Bestiality may be allowed by shari’ah. 

These are just statements that would be considered incitement against non-Muslims and multicultural societies.  There is a whole category of false statements about Islamic jurisprudence and theology refuted by the scholars of Islam, and another category where this expert of science has played fast and loose with facts. 

This man is a fraud, a charlatan, a liar, a fire brand, a snake oil salesman, an enabler of violence, a cheerleader for terrorism, a misogynist, a heretic, and worse.  The fact that so many Muslims in places as disparate as Malaysia, India and elsewhere think so highly of him says much of what sort of people they are.  They are the Trump supporters of the Muslim world.