A day after Qatar sought to clarify over the issue, India on Thursday (November 24) said that it has raised with issue of Zakir Naik being invited by the middle-eastern country for FIFA 2022 event.
Responding to a question during a regular press briefing in New Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said,”Issue of Zakir Naik being wanted in India has been raised with Qatar.”
The statement comes after reports said Qatar has informed India through diplomatic channels that Naik has not been officially invited to attend the opening ceremony of FIFA 2022. Qatar reportedly said that deliberate ‘disinformation’ was being spread by third countries to spoil India-Qatar ties.
Naik, a televangelist who is facing multiple cases in India, reportedly left the country in 2016 and moved to Malaysia, where he was granted permanent residency. India had sent a request to Malaysia for his extradition.
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Zakir Naik is already banned in the UK and Canada for his hate speech against other religions.
The government had extended ban on Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) in India by five years in 2021. The IRF was first declared an unlawful organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967) by the central government on November 17, 2016.
The IRF has been indulging in activities which are prejudicial to the security of the country and have the potential of disturbing peace and communal harmony and disrupting the secular fabric of the country, the Union Home Ministry had said in a notification while extending the ban on IRF.
