‘Walk the Talk’ with Dr. Zakir Naik

“The most misunderstood word in Islam is Jihad… it means to strive.., struggle to make society better”

Dr Zakir Naik, Islamic tele-evangelist

Channel : NDTV 24×7

Program : Walk the Talk

Host : Shekhar Gupta

Guest : Dr. Zakir Naik, founder and President of the IRF, Islamic Research Foundation.

Telecasted on : 7 March 2009

The Transcript of the Show:

Shekhar Gupta: Hello and welcome to Walk the Talk. I am Shekhar Gupta in Bombay’s Worli sea face and my guest this week, well, I could describe him rock star of tele-evangelism, but surprise of surprises, he is not preaching what you would expect a tele-evangelists to preach. He is preaching Islam, modern Islam, and not just Islam but his own interpretation of all the faiths around the world. 43-year-old Dr. Zakir Naik. Welcome to walk the talk.

Zakir Naik: Hi, nice meeting you. It’s a pleasure.

Shekhar Gupta: Nice meeting you. An Islamic preacher, dressed in suit and tie, using medium of television, when you would expect that in these times of sort of Talibanisation, people would think that Islamic preachers are telling Muslims to throw television sets away. You are a different kind of person.

Zakir Naik: No actually I follow, as you said, that teaches modern Islam of his own interpretation, I believe in interpretation of Quran and Sahih Hadith. So, I go back to the original sources. When I speak about religion, I go back to the original scriptures. When I speak about Hindu religion I go back to the Veda, when I speak about Islam I go back to the Quran and the authentic Hadith and then I present it to the world.

Shekhar Gupta: By doing that you build this following of literally, crores and crores of people around the world.

Zakir Naik: Alhumdolillah. It’s God’s grace and mercy.

Shekhar Gupta: You said you go to the original sources, so are you suggesting that many others who use the medium of Islam to put many restrictions, watching television for example, or going to a model school, particularly for women, they are not reading the original scriptures?

Zakir Naik: What I believe that they may take a verse of the Quran, Hadith and misinterpret it. Maybe there is a scholar who has misinterpreted it, 50 years back, 100 years back, 200 years back, so they believe in his view directly, without going to the source. What I do, whenever I read the statement of a scholar I go back and see why he has said that thing. Most of the people, they just believe and quote the scholar without checking what he has quoted and from where he has got it. What we believe there is no verse in the Quran or the Hadith that which says that the television is prohibited.

Shekhar Gupta: Right

Zakir Naik: Yes, there is a statement in the Quran which says, you know about making tasveer or portrait, you know by making by hand. But that doesn’t mean about photography and videography because at the time of the Prophet photography and videography wasn’t there, so according to me, there is no verse in the Quran or Hadith that says that television is haraam. But watching wrong thing on the television, like obscenity, like pornography, fine, that is haraam.

Shekhar Gupta: Right, right. So do you think that Islam has actually, un-deservingly got a bad name, because of wrong interpretation of the original scriptures by many.

Zakir Naik: That’s right. I agree with you totally. It is the most misconceived religion in the world, most misunderstood religion.

Shekhar Gupta: Give me some examples. Because you talk to people around the world.

Zakir Naik: For example, as we were saying, the most misconceived word in Islam is Jihad.

Shekhar Gupta: Right

Zakir Naik: People have a wrong notion, and they have the wrong information just by the television media etc, because as you know that Jihad originally, the Arabic word comes from the word jiddu jehad, which means to strive and to struggle. That’s it. It means to strive and to struggle.

Shekhar Gupta: Does it mean ‘holy war’?

Zakir Naik: It doesn’t mean at all. This if you see that jiddu jehad means to strive and to struggle, in Islamic context it means to strive and to struggle against own evil inclination, to strive and struggle to make the society better. Even if a person is striving and struggling in the battle for self-defence, it is called jihad. This word ‘holy war’ was first used by the Christian crusaders who spread the religion at the point of a sword. And now it’s used for the muslims unfortunately. Because ‘holy war’, in Arabic if you translate means Harbun mukkaddasa. The word Harbun mukkaddasa doesn’t appear anywhere in the Quran neither in the sayings of the Prophet. ‘The holy war’ in arabic is Harbun mukkaddasa.

Shekhar Gupta: There are invocations for Muslims who rise in jihad eiher against the West, or in some places against India, or wherever. People who give these invocations haven’t read their books right?

Zakir Naik: Some may be right, some may be wrong.

Shekhar Gupta: Right

Zakir Naik: For example if someone says, I want to do jihad to clean up the society and he says that pornography should be removed from society, he’s right. So he’s striving and struggling to remove obscenity from society which is right. But to say in terms which is wrong, which is against the Quran and the Hadith, for example the Quran says in Surah Ma’idah, chapter number 5, verse no: 32, “If any human being kills any other human being, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, unless it be for murder or for creating corruption in the land, it is as though he has killed the whole of humanity.” So any Muslim kills any other non-Muslim, an innocent non-Muslim or a Muslim that is against the Quran.

Shekhar Gupta: That would apply to the people who went around killing people in 26/11?

Zakir Naik: Hundred per cent. It is against the teaching of the Quran and Hadith. 26/11, 11 September in New York twin tower, killing innocent people even a single, and Quran goes ahead and says that; “if you kill a single human being it is as though you have killed the whole of humanity”. One… here they have killed thousands in the world trade centre and even here, 26/11, hundreds, it is totally against the religion.

Shekhar Gupta: And to kill in the name of Islam is unfair to Islam?

Zakir Naik: Unless, unless… the verse says, unless he has killed someone else for justice or created corruption in the land. So if it falls under these two categories of murder against murder or spreading corruption in the land, that is the time.

Shekhar Gupta: I am looking at specific examples like 26/11?

Zakir Naik: Hundred, hundred, hundred per cent wrong. Going in the market place, blowing up killing innocent people, even non-Muslim. Even if some non-Muslim has done harm to you, you can’t go and kill some other non-Muslim. It’s out of the question, it’s totally against Islam.

Shekhar Gupta: So, to use Jihad or to use Islam to justify this is something you object to?

Zakir Naik: Hundred per cent. Hundred per cent.

Shekhar Gupta: Because I have been watching a lot of your DVDs and I am fascinated by the fact that you make a distinction between 9/11 which you say was a terrible thing, the destruction of the twin towers and Osama bin Laden, because you are hesitant to accept that he is a terrorist or a terrorist leader.

Zakir Naik: I mean, the complete statement would be, I am hesitant to accept him as a terrorist or a saint. That is the complete statement.

Shekhar Gupta: Terrorist or a saint?

Zakir Naik: Because you see personally what I have learnt about Osama bin Laden is from the news channels, from BBC and CNN. So if you ask my view about Osama bin Laden, I can repeat it, but it will not be doing justice, because the Quran says in Surah Al Hujurat chapter no: 49, verse no:6, “Whenever you get an information, you check it up before you pass it onto the third person.” So I personally haven’t checked it up.

Shekhar Gupta: That’s what we teach in Journalism schools actually.

Zakir Naik: That’s right, so unfortunately if you ask me Osama bin Laden’s opinion, I neither say he’s a saint, I neither he is a terrorist. I don’t know, I haven’t interviewed him, I haven’t done a survey. And the same question, people say see Zakir is supporting Osama bin Laden, I say that’s not the case, I am being neutral, if I don’t know a person, I cannot..

Shekhar Gupta: But at the same time you will say that the destruction of the twin towers was…

Zakir Naik: What I say, the person who has destroyed the twin tower is hundred per cent wrong. He cannot be a practicing Muslim, he has to be condemned.

Shekhar Gupta: And he is a terrorist

Zakir Naik: Hundred per cent, he is wrong

Shekhar Gupta: But you are not sure if it’s Osama bin Laden?

Zakir Naik: That’s it. Because I keep on traveling, I get information from documentaries like ‘Loose change’, ‘9/11′, which states that it was an inside job, this 9/11 was an inside job done by George Bush himself, neither am I saying that is right. Now because I get conflicting news, and the evidence what I saw in that documentary is far superior to the evidence against Osama bin Laden. But in the same way, if someone asks me, if the lady, what’s her name, Sadhvi, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, they ask me that is she a terrorist, I said, see, that is what the Bombay police is saying. For me, she is neither terrorist neither a saint. For her to be called a terrorist surely she has to undergo a trial.

Shekhar Gupta: Right

Zakir Naik: And if the judge gives the judgment, most of the time, almost all, the judgment of the Indian judiciary, I respect.

Shekhar Gupta: You respect…

Zakir Naik: There may be once or twice I disagree

Shekhar Gupta: That’s the other thing… if I say if one has to read the collected works of Dr Zakir Naik, those are in your DVDs, very fascinating thing is your faith in the Indian system, the constitution, the judiciary, it’s so refreshing!

Zakir Naik: That’s right, that’s right.

Shekhar Gupta: Where does that come from?

Zakir Naik: What I believe that when I go and see the background, I am a person who observe the thing objectively, rather than going emotionally and news you know. When I see that even innocent people, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, if they are being harassed by certain people for their own motives, finally judicial system comes to their help. They may get that help maybe 2 years later, or 5 years later, or 10 years later, but they get that clean chit. So seeing that I have more faith in the judicial system. That’s the reason when they ask me about Sadhvi, I say she is neither good nor bad, neither terrorist, neither saint, but that is not reported in the paper, that Dr Zakir Naik is neutral to a Sadhvi. Because I use the same scale for a Muslim or non-Muslim as to be just.

Shekhar Gupta: Right. For Osama as well as Sadhvi?

Zakir Naik: That’s right

Shekhar Gupta: So, and what about the constitution? Constitution is what gives every citizen an equal right but there are many in the Muslim community in particular who complain that this is not good enough, that the Indian system is not good enough, who lack faith in the system?

Zakir Naik: As far as the Indian Constitution is concerned, I’ve said that in my lecture many times, that I am proud to be an Indian. India is one of the few countries in the world, that gives a right to its citizens to preach, practice and follow the religion. So as far as all the constitutions in a non-muslim countries around the world that I have seen, India is the best I can say.

Shekhar Gupta: And Indian constitution does not place any restrictions on religion…

Zakir Naik: That’s right. Because what I say, I am a practicing Muslim and I am a practicing Indian citizen. And I don’t know a single rule in the constitution which forces a Muslim to do something prohibited in Islam or prevents him from doing something which is compulsory in Islam. So I can be a very good practicing Muslim and I am proud to be an Indian. Both together, simultaneously.

Shekhar Gupta: When you say this to your audiences, particularly young Muslim audiences, do some people doubt this?

Zakir Naik: Some people don’t like it but the majority they are happy. Because I give the reason. When I say something I give proof. Because, for example, in an Indian law, the person may have the right to drink alcohol, but it doesn’t say every Indian should have alcohol compulsorily. If it had said that, then there was a problem. So they give you liberty to follow Islam and at the same time you can be a very good practicing Muslim in India which you cannot be in America or in UK. Why because India has special rules… Muslim personal law is there. So we have a right to follow our religion as long as we don’t go against any other Indian citizen

Shekhar Gupta: Law of the land… Dr Naik, if I may call you that, you didn’t practice very much. We know that you are an MBBS doctor.

Zakir Naik: Basically

Shekhar Gupta: When you say some people disagree with your discourses with this I presume many of them are young people. Why are some young Muslims angry in India?

Zakir Naik: Maybe that some of the youngsters may have been brainwashed with wrong information. But this some is few. For my talks many youngsters come and you find a large gathering. But thing is that they may have been fed with the wrong information. So what I believe I am proud of my country and happy to be in India. I would like to live in India.

Shekhar Gupta: And you through your discourses try to give them the right information…

Zakir Naik: That’s right.

Shekhar Gupta: And you tell them for an Indian Muslim there is no conflict between Indian nationalism and Islam?

Zakir Naik: As far as nationalism is concerned the word has different meanings.

Shekhar Gupta: Right

Zakir Naik: If nationalism is following the country, I am for it and Quran and Hadith says which country you are living in as long as it doesn’t conflict with the law of the Quran and the Hadith, against the law of Almighty God and the Prophet, you have to follow every law. So I am for it. And I told you there’s not a single thing..

Shekhar Gupta: There’s no contradiction?

Zakir Naik: There’s no contradiction.

Shekhar Gupta: So, you know, one thing that is now being said often in the Western world is that India has such a large Muslim population..

Zakir Naik: That’s right. Second largest in the world.

Shekhar Gupta: Yes. Surely there are some people who go astray or some people who get caught in some terrorist incident. But it’s amazing that so few, almost no Indian Muslims have as yet influenced by the terrorist stream. Is the reason the constitution or constitutionalism? Or is it the special nature of Indian Islam?

Zakir Naik: No, what I feel that, as far as the constitution, constitution I said is perfectly fine, there is nothing against it..

Shekhar Gupta: Or a history of thousand years of co-existence?

Zakir Naik: Yes we know India was ruled by Muslims for a 1000 years, the Mughals, at the time India was on the top of the world, no.1 country, super power in the world was India. Unfortunately the British came, they took out the wealth, and they created this divide between the Hindu and the Muslim.

Shekhar Gupta: Right

Zakir Naik: I feel that the Hindus and Muslims used to live harmoniously together. It is due to the British policy of divide and rule that caused all this friction. But what I feel that because there is no animosity in terms like, that what we realize that, now what we feel, what we see a few instances it is more because I have said these people are being brainwashed. But as a whole the Indian Muslims they feel like taking to the Quran, they feel like taking to the Hadith, so that’s the reason that I…

Shekhar Gupta: That Indian Muslims are more settled in their minds about their existence?

Zakir Naik: That’s right

Shekhar Gupta: Did you have… have you spoken very much about the two-nation theory?

Zakir Naik: Two nation theory means about the India and Pakistan

Shekhar Gupta: India and Pakistan…

Zakir Naik: That every one in India and Pakistan was…

Shekhar Gupta: No, no what’s your view. Because of this there is another view that if India had not got divided then it would have been one country…

Zakir Naik: I am for it

Shekhar Gupta: …with 45 crore Muslims.

Zakir Naik: I believe the worst thing that happened to this country was the division, the Partition shouldn’t have taken place. It was better, for the Muslims, if they lived as one country.

Shekhar Gupta: Why do you feel so? Let’s talk about it

Zakir Naik: Because I believe that in many ways, it would have been a bigger force, imagine the resources of India and Pakistan all put together, whether it be sports, whether it be cricket, whether it be otherwise, whether it be intellectual, it would have been far better and we would be a bigger force. India is supposed to be superpower in the next few years, China and India is competing. If it had been joined together, imagine, Pakistan and Bangladesh…

Shekhar Gupta: And Muslims themselves would have had much better political power

Zakir Naik: Without doubt. I feel it was more of a gain, the view of some of the individuals who wanted division… not the just the muslims.., I mean, there are many theories why the Partition took place, I don’t want to go into the details. It was engineered and it took place.

Shekhar Gupta: But the Partition did harm the Muslims of the subcontinent

Zakir Naik: That’s my view. 100 per cent. If they were together, they’d have been a bigger force, lived harmoniously as were before and better in many ways, in terms of economics, in terms of education…

Shekhar Gupta: Because, you know, only you can get away with it. Many Hindu leaders for example today will be afraid of saying this. Hindu means not necessarily leaders of the BJP but even intellectuals of sort of Hindu persuasion. They’ll have a tough time saying this, they’ll have to now say for political correctness that I accept the two-nation theory, long live Pakistan.

Zakir Naik: I agree with you totally.

Shekhar Gupta: So have the Muslims done introspection?

Zakir Naik: What I believe that, it is what I feel that, which is I have read. It was more of a pressure tactic used by some of the Muslim politicians to get their rights that backfired. Or the opposition took it as a thing and said lets part.

Shekhar Gupta: Or maybe the partition was accepted too easily by the Congress?

Zakir Naik: And besides, the people who parted, these politicians weren’t really practicing Muslims, you see. I don’t want to go into the details, so what we realize that more for pressure views.

Shekhar Gupta: Because you know it was said at that time, that all well-to-do Muslims, Muslim intellectuals, the Muslim upper crust all went to Pakistan

Zakir Naik: Majority didn’t go. Majority of the Muslims stayed in India. The population of Indian Muslims is much more than Pakistani Muslims, much more

Shekhar Gupta: But now you find, in so many ways, Indian Muslims seem to be doing very well, although there are facts that the Sachar committee report has now thrown up, they’ve got left behind in many areas which has to be corrected. But they have done very well. India suddenly has Muslim icons. Look at the Oscars for example..

Zakir Naik: I am happy to be in India than in Pakistan. If you had given me a choice now where to be, I’ll prefer to be in India. It’s a much better country.

Shekhar Gupta: Look at the Oscars for example, two Muslims go and win Oscars and for music. So there is something to be said for a multicultural, pluralistic society

Zakir Naik: If we had been together, we’d have been a much better force and we would have better things…

Shekhar Gupta: You have followers in Pakistan, they listen to you?

Zakir Naik: More than India, in fact, the viewers in Pakistan are much more.

Shekhar Gupta: In fact, I for the first time heard of you from a Pakistani friend, a journalist. Who said, I see the rise of this new star from Bombay and I had not heard of you before that, I must admit that…

Zakir Naik: I don’t antagonize my viewers in Pakistan because of my views

Shekhar Gupta: Wonderful Pakistani columnist called Khalid Ahmed had told me this. So you study a situation like Kashmir, India-Pakistan, the key to permanent peace in the sub-continent, countries are now separate, they will not come together, but key to maybe a situation where we become like Europe, where boundaries matter less and less and people can get together, lies to solving the Kashmir problem. Do you have a solution?

Zakir Naik: I don’t have a solution but I remember that when I was called to give a talk in Kashmir in the year 2003 where there was lot of problem, much more than today. Finally I went there and the governor of Kashmir, he called me and he was an ex-army man, he called me and said you have a large following…

Shekhar Gupta: Gen. Sinha

Zakir Naik: Gen. Sinha, yeah, correct. Thing what I believe, the people of Kashmir they are fed up and this conflict is mainly due to politicians. More politically motivated and what we find if there is some problem in the internal in India, the politician create a problem in Kashmir and the whole and all attention is diverted there to Pakistan. So this is used as a trump card, and if they falter something, if they do mistake in their view of how to handle politics in India, they blow up the issue of Kashmir and Pakistan, so everyone’s mind is diverted there. So this is like a trump card kept by politicians.

Shekhar Gupta: And the same happens on that side?

Zakir Naik: Same. Same in Pakistan. So what I believe that in the bargain the major people losing are the Kashmiris. And when I spoke to them personally, they are fed up. They said we don’t want to be in Pakistan neither in India, we want to be independent.

Shekhar Gupta: But you know…

Zakir Naik: Difficult, difficult…

Shekhar Gupta: Given that that may not happen, what is the solution?

Zakir Naik: I feel as far as Indian government is concerned whatever part that we have with us in our control what we feel that we should uplift the people of Kashmir. Give them good education and we should win their trust. Fine you can have your border, I am not against it, but see to it that we give them more facility so that people of Kashmir are happy to be with India. There are some who are happy but not the majority, so if we give them good education, previously tourism was so unimaginable. Switzerland, they promote tourism. We have our Kashmir, which is called as the paradise on earth. So why don’t we create it as a spot of tourism, give them more facility, education, job, etc. So the only time we use Kashmir is as a political votebank. They go to them when there is an election.

Shekhar Gupta: Or Kashmir becomes a votebank for votes elsewhere in the country. On both sides?

Zakir Naik: Of course, that’s right.

Shekhar Gupta: And what sense do you get when you talk to Kashmiris? Given a choice which way will they head?

Zakir Naik: I feel, speaking to many, they prefer being neutral. They are fed up of Pakistan, India, both.

Shekhar Gupta: And if that option is not available?

Zakir Naik: Then I feel the Indian government should give them more facility.

Shekhar Gupta: Reach out to them?

Zakir Naik: Correct. Reach out to them. Solve their problems, give them education. I feel we can win over them, and the problem will be solved.

Shekhar Gupta: You know… you talk so much about education, it’s so heartening. I know that you run a school and you run an English medium school and in fact you did your schooling also under the ICSE system.

Zakir Naik: That’s right

Shekhar Gupta: So if I could describe you as sort of an odd maulana in a way, you are one of the oddest because you are talking of English medium education, you are talking of sending girls to modern schools, you defend Sania Mirza (laughs)

Zakir Naik: (Laughs) Defend what she has done right. I may defend for a person what she has done good, if she has done wrong, I am against. As far as calling me a maulana, maulana is a word used in India mainly, it is used for a person who is religious person or a scholar, I don’t consider myself to be a scholar. I consider myself to be a student of Islam and comparative religion, so I prefer being…

Shekhar Gupta: So tell us your views on modern education?

Zakir Naik: See Modern education, infact the first guidance given in the glorious Quran, for humanity and the Muslims, was not to pray, was not to give charity, was not to go to Hajj, it was Iqra, it was to read. So the first guidance that Almighty God gave to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was to read. And our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said it is obligatory on every Muslim, man or woman, to acquire knowledge. So acquiring knowledge is compulsory for every Muslim, man or woman.

Shekhar Gupta: So this business of shutting down schools, driving girls out of schools, in parts of Afghanistan or Pakistan, you disapprove of?

Zakir Naik: Whether it is done or not, but anyone doing that is wrong. What we can do, if there is any wrong practices going on in school, like what we read in the newspapers now, that by the time a girl leaves the school, she loses her virginity, so if they want to stop this and create an educational system where these obscene things don’t take place, I am for it. 100 per cent for it.

Shekhar Gupta: Right. But you can’t shut schools, you can’t bar girls from going to schools?

Zakir Naik: No you can’t bar, you have to create an environment where they get better education. You cannot stop them. If you feel that this education system is wrong, where there is something wrong happening, you create a better educational system.

Shekhar Gupta: Because if you look at this Sachar Committee report you can see that one of the reasons that Muslims got left behind is one, insufficient education and second, this whole emphasis on Urdu. If you have an Urdu medium education, it becomes very difficult for young Muslims to find modern jobs. They have a disadvantage in the job market if they have Urdu-medium education.

Zakir Naik: That’s right. As far as the Sachar Committee report, Muslims are 59.1, Hindus are 65.1 per cent. So the difference is only 6 per cent. The thing to be noted here that as far as schooling there is a problem. When you go to undergraduates, there is a bigger problem in the Indian educational system. So Sachar Committee, Justice Sachar, is blaming the government for not giving facility. If you see the prestigious colleges of undergraduates, Muslims are only 4 per cent. And post graduates 2 per cent. IIM, he says, the Muslim is 1.3 per cent, and IIT 3.3 per cent. So what he says why this discrimination, we should give more facility for the Muslims to educate, which I am totally for it.

Shekhar Gupta: But do you have a view on Urdu medium education?

Zakir Naik: As far as Urdu-medium is concerned education I am not against it, at the same time we should realize that today the international language is English. And personally I give more importance to Arabic and English..

Shekhar Gupta: Right, right

Zakir Naik: And then Urdu. I am not against Urdu. See, for example, if you know from the 8 th to the 12th century, the Europeans called it the Dark Ages. But at this time, from the 8th to the 12th century, the amount of advances that the Muslims made in the field of science, technology, mathematics, excellent.

Shekhar Gupta: Including military craft…

Zakir Naik: So if they wanted to know about science, a non-Muslim had to learn Arabic to know science. So today because English is the International language I feel the best two languages I gave importance to is Arabic and English. Arabic to understand the word of Almighty God, and English. Then, finally. I am personally against Urdu, but more importance I’d give to Arabic and English.

Shekhar Gupta: Dr Naik, we haven’t quite mentioned this yet, you are also a TV tycoon in your own right. You have a very popular channel Peace TV and you keep talking about news channel as well, when does that come?

Zakir Naik: I have got plans. At present, InshaAllah, in the month of June (2009). We have a plan of launching a Peace TV Urdu. Well this channel is a mixture. 25 per cent Urdu I say but actually it is Hindustani. Mainly for the non-Muslims also. So it is 25 per cent Hindustani and 75 per cent English. The new channel, which am going to launch in June, InshaAllah, God willing would be 100 per cent Urdu and this channel will be 100 per cent English. Then next in the pipeline is the news channel, when, whether 1 year, 2 year, 3 year…

Shekhar Gupta: Looking forward to it, because one of the things you do…

Zakir Naik: I wont be a competition to NDTV (laughs)

Shekhar Gupta: (laughs) Not at all in fact you had agreed to be on this show, we should improve the viewership. One of the fascinating things you do is to have these religious debates, with leaders of other communities. This is the time when the world is talking about dialogue of civilizations, of communities. Which one did you enjoy most of all?

Zakir Naik: There were quite a few I had.

Shekhar Gupta: The Pope, he hasn’t quite accepted your offer

Zakir Naik: The one abroad, internationally, when I had been to America, there was a Christian missionary who wrote a book saying there are 30 scientific errors in the Quran. You are a medical doctor, I am a medical doctor, so someone challenged us to have a dialogue. So I went to Chicago and there we had dialogue by the name of Bible and the Quran in the light of Science. That I enjoyed. In India it was Sri Sri Ravishankar when we launched our satellite channel Peace TV.

Shekhar Gupta: That’s a delightful conversation

Zakir Naik: And the topic was Concept of God in Islam and Hinduism in the light of the sacred scriptures. So we are supposed to say what the sacred scriptures speak about the Almighty God. And there my main purpose was to tell to the people that the basic concept of god in Islam and Hindu is the same – one God, don’t do idol worship, he is the one to be worshiped. And I always believe in going to the scriptures than quoting the view of any particular scholar

Shekhar Gupta: And you don’t attack another religion

Zakir Naik: I don’t. Some people may conceive or consider I am attacking. My main reason is to get them together. As the Quran says in Surah Ali ‘Imran chapter 3 verse 64, “Come to common terms as has been assigned” and the first term that you worship none but the almighty God. So you know what I do, I don’t say that all religions are the same. Any person who says all religions are the same, he doesn’t know about religion. I know there are differences.

Shekhar Gupta: You can say God is the same?

Zakir Naik: God is only one.

Shekhar Gupta: Right

Zakir Naik: God is the same. What I say there are similarities in different religions. What I do I try and work on the similarities and get the people together rather than divide them. But when I get people together, those people who have their flock, they feel a little bit endangered that we are losing our audience. That is the main reason they say that I attack. Normally I am getting people together.

Shekhar Gupta: Getting people together is a wonderful note to conclude this conversation on Dr Zakir Naik. So nice to have you on walk the talk.

Zakir Naik: It’s a pleasure

Shekhar Gupta: I hope you keep on growing in popularity,

Zakir Naik: InshaAllah.

Shekhar Gupta: And keep on taking the message of modern religion, modern spirituality to wider and wider audiences and I do hope you stay out of politics. Thank you very much.

Zakir Naik: InshaAllah. Thank you.

Also Read : Zakir Naik on NDTV talk show – A Review