Ban on Islamic preacher Zakir Naik’s foundation upheld by tribunal court
India Today
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal has upheld the ban by the home ministry on Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation.
A tribunal court has upheld the ban on Islamic preacher Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation (IRF). The foundation has been declared an unlawful association by the Ministry of Home Affairs of India.
The Central Government banned the IRF based on the information it received pertaining to the various cases that had been registered against Zakir Naik and other members of the IRF under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Information Technology Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The Central Government found that the IRF, particularly the Founder and President, Zakir Naik, had been encouraging and aiding its followers to promote or attempt to promote, on the grounds of religion, disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious communities.
The Centre also observed that despite leaving for Malaysia in 2016, Zakir Naik continued to reach out to his followers, propagate his teachings via videos and posts on social media, promote hatred and ill-will among different religious communities, engage in forcible conversion of youngsters to Islam and had made derogatory statements against the Hindu, Hindu Gods and other religions.
Sources have informed India Today that the Centre is mulling a ban on (Popular Front of India) PFI as well.
