Dr Zakir Naik: One Man, One Mission, Islamic Personalities, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Personalities

Dr Zakir Naik: One Man, One Mission

By Aijaz Zaka Syed

4 September 2009

One first heard about Dr Zakir Naik nearly ten years ago, back in Bangalore. A friend of mine and an ardent admirer of his had invited me to one of his marathon lecture-and-Q&A sessions in the Silicon Valley of India. Back then, I didn’t know who he was and why just about everyone was looking forward to seeing him in action.

And then I saw his posters all over the city that has always been so close to my heart. I couldn’t believe what I saw: A maulvi (mullah?) in a smart, well-cut suit, with a strikingly colourful tie and regulation Muslim skullcap and a scrubby beard. He looked rather funny. My friend told me Dr Naik was good at giving “speeches in English” on Islam.

I opted to pass that meeting, deciding it must be one of those boring community events that we do all the time. However, Dr Zakir Naik and his face remained etched on my memory. It was not just his appearance. There was something about the man that you couldn’t quite place yet found hard to ignore.

Today, the rather ordinary looking ‘mullah in suit’ has come a long way. He has grown into a legend, a true phenomenon and has millions of followers in India and around the world. His Peace TV, with its headquarters in Mumbai and a staff of nearly 200 young and committed professionals, is the world’s first global television network that is dedicated to presenting the real face of Islam and its original, liberating teachings before the world.

http://newageislam.com/dr-zakir-naik--one-man,-one-mission/islamic-personalities/d/1733

Will we allow mainstream Islam to turn into a moderate fringe, while extremists take centre-stage?, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Will we allow mainstream Islam to turn into a moderate fringe, while extremists take centre-stage?

By Aijaz Zaka Syed

December 01, 2008

This happens all the time. Every time innocents are targeted in the name of Islam around the world, one can’t face one’s non-Muslim friends and colleagues. A distraught friend who has devoted her life to speaking and fighting on behalf of Arabs and Muslims wrote: “I’ve had it with the Arabs and Muslims and Islamic militancy. Forgive me but I am throwing in the towel.” I couldn’t write back to her. She grew up in Mumbai and is upset. She went on to say: “The Muslims and Islam have a problem and only they can solve it. If they do not, the whole world will turn against them.”

If this is how our most loyal friends feel, imagine the sentiments and reactions of the rest of the world. Can you blame the world if it’s turning against Muslims? What do you expect when not a day passes without the name of our faith being dragged through the mud by fellow believers around the world?

I know that Muslim leaders, including those in the highest echelons of power, have lately started speaking out against the extremists. The Darul Uloom Deoband in India, one of the oldest and most respected centres of learning in the Muslim world, issued a fatwa against terrorism at a large gathering of Islamic scholars in June. Last month, nearly 5,000 scholars backed the edict at a huge congregation in Hyderabad. The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), and Saudi Arabia have, of late, been vehement in condemning these repulsive acts of violence targeting innocents. But clearly, we need to do more to be heard.

http://newageislam.com/will-we-allow-mainstream-islam-to-turn-into-a-moderate-fringe,-while-extremists-take-centre-stage?/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1041

Lost war in Afghanistan, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Lost war in Afghanistan

Aijaz Zaka Syed I Arab News

Friday 29 August 2008 (28 Sha`ban 1429)

There are reports of at least a hundred girls’ schools in Pakistan’s Swat region being burned down by the militants. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Islam knows that these actions strike at the very heart of the great faith and what it stands for. But this is not a debate about Islam and how the zealots like Taleban are distorting it.

What really intrigues me is the fact that in spite of these patently absurd actions by the insurgents, support for them continues to grow in Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan.

The more the “Coalition of the Willing” pours in billions of dollars in funds, tens of thousands of the world’s finest soldiers and the most lethal arms and ammunition in Afghanistan, the more they seem to lose against an enemy that was supposed to have been destroyed in the 2001 invasion. An enemy that has no ostensible external support and few weapons continues to give the reigning superpower and its equally powerful allies a run for their money.

http://newageislam.com/-lost-war-in-afghanistan/war-on-terror/d/664

Osama’s war and Indian Muslims, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Osama’s war and Indian Muslims

Gujarat blasts, Muslim fears

Aijaz Zaka Syed - Arab News

Even though there has been no credible evidence so far to link these shameful acts targeting innocent people to the community, responsibility has already been laid at its doorstep. And the ever-humble Indian Muslim has persuaded himself, with the rest of the country, that fellow Muslims are to blame for the attacks. The community has begun some intense soul-searching and is looking for answers — and the black sheep behind the terror strikes.

Some Muslim leaders have tended to reject these attacks and the little known outfit Indian Mujahedeen that has claimed responsibility for them as a huge conspiracy by Hindu extremists to malign the Muslim community.

Others including the government circles and the media have, of course, found it more convenient to blame Pakistan and its infamous ISI. It’s in any case the ISI-bashing season with even the CIA. The US spy agency that once trained and worked with ISI, now paints the Pak agency as the fount of global terror.

http://newageislam.com/osama%E2%80%99s-war-and-indian-muslims/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/481

We are victims too, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeISlam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

We are victims too

By Aijaz Zaka Syed

Khaleej Times, May 29 2008

This is what I tried to argue after the 7/7 London bombings. Even as one has repeatedly assailed the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and widespread human rights abuses as part of the terror war, one has never shied away from taking on the extremists who claim to speak on behalf of Muslims and yet shed innocent blood.

In fact, I see these elements as greatest threat to Islam and Muslims because they kill in the name of our faith and distort its humane teachings. Which is why one has constantly pleaded with Muslim intellectuals and leaders to raise their voice against this lunatic fringe.

God knows we can't afford to lose this battle of hearts and minds. The Muslims really need to make some noise; making it clear to the world that this is not the Islam we know (no apologies to Bush).

That said, I find these expectations from Indian Muslims to prove they are not with the terrorists, every time there's an attack of this sort rather disconcerting. Why do we have to prove our innocence and loyalty to the land that has been our home for more than a thousand years every time there's an incident like this?

http://newageislam.com/we-are-victims-too/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/28

Obama can heal this rift between the US and Muslims and the world at large, Islam and Politics, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politics

Obama can heal this rift between the US and Muslims and the world at large

BY Aijaz Zaka Syed

5 June 2008

That Obama is a visionary nonpareil has once again been demonstrated in the way the senator has handled this turning point in the presidential race. While staking his claim for the Democratic ticket, he went to great lengths to praise his bitter and often times mean rival, Hillary Clinton, to the skies with a dignity and humility that would have made Gandhi proud. I am sure if Obama had lost this race to the Clintons, he would have accepted his defeat with the same grace and humility.

Perhaps this is what distinguishes winners from losers. Maybe this is what leadership is all about. So even as he smoothly went on winning one primary after another, picking up more and more votes and delegates and conquering the hearts and minds of the Americans cutting across race, colour and culture, his rival didn't know how and when to quit with dignity. Even after it became clear that she had lost the numbers game to her more charismatic and credible challenger, Hillary kept on insisting 'we are winning' — whatever that meant. Even in her final speech Tuesday night after Obama emerged victorious with 2,144 delegates in his kitty — 26 more than required to win the nomination — she did not have the courage to concede her defeat. Having lost the game and tried every trick in the book against Obama, the Clintons are now shamelessly eyeing the second spot.

http://newageislam.com/obama-can-heal-this-rift-between-the-us-and-muslims-and-the-world-at-large/islam-and-politics/d/52

How Obama Earns His Nobel,Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com,

Islam and the West

How Obama Earns His Nobel

by Aijaz Zaka Syed

The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) reported in February that at least 260 drone strikes had taken place since Obama took over, killing 535 civilians, including 60 children, in Pakistan. Many more have been claimed by the aptly named Hellfire missiles since. The BIJ report noted that the killing machines in the sky do not spare even those rushing to help the victims or survivors. Even mourners are routinely targeted – a pattern that has been diligently followed in Afghanistan.

The day Obama’s counterterrorism czar went public defending the indefensible, Salon, a respected US-based publication, did an interesting feature on Shahzad Akbar, a UK-educated Pakistani lawyer who has been valiantly fighting for justice for drone victims. Introducing the crusader, Salon wrote: “If you want to see how Obama’s drone war efficiently turns America’s friends into adversaries, meet Pakistani attorney Shahzad Akbar.”

http://www.newageislam.com/islam-and-the-west/aijaz-zaka-syed/how-obama-earns-his-nobel/d/7305