MUMBAI, Sept 10 - Controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, facing the allegation of �radicalising� youths, today asked the government what exactly has he done to get the tag of �Dr Terror� and sought �logical answers� to charges levelled against him.
In a four-page �open letter� released here, Naik posed five questions to the government as to what he has done to earn the tags of �terror preacher�, �Dr Terror�.
�Why now? I have been preaching for 25 years not just in India but across the world. What exactly did I do now to earn the tags of �terror preacher�, �Dr Terror�? Of 150 countries where I am respected, I am called a �terrorist influencer� in my own country. What an irony!,� the 50-year-old televangelist asked.
�Despite exhaustive investigations, not a single conclusive evidence of wrong doing was reported by any governmental agency. But now investigators are being asked to repeat and continue the probe. Why?� he sought to know.
On the government�s action against his NGO, he asked why would the government renew IRF�s FCRA registration and then cancel it? And that it seemed �illogical�.
�Is there design to leaking confidential information of the government, solicitor general and the MHA? Is there a design to leaking selective government documents to the media?� the letter said.
Naik, a medical doctor-turned-Salafist preacher, said the entire row in the last few months have come as a �shock� to him and termed it as �murder of democracy and strangulation of fundamental rights.�
�This is not just an attack on me, it is an attack against Indian Muslims. And it is an attack against peace, democracy and justice,� Naik wrote in the letter.
The founder of Peace TV, run by his Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), Naik has come under the scanner of security agencies after a Bangladeshi newspaper had reported that one of the attackers of the July 1 terror strike in Dhaka was �inspired� by his speeches. �PTI
