New Delhi: Controversial televangelist Zakir Naik of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) used funds from countries like Saudi Arabia to carry out illegal conversions in India, says a report.
The report surfaces a day after another report claimed that Naik used to lure Hindus and Jains with money to make them convert to Islam.
The Daily Mail Online has quoted sources with knowledge of the IRF as alleging that Naik is on the Saudi Arabia's payroll for performing religious conversions.
Meanwhile, PA Inamdar, the president of the Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society at Pune’s Azam Campus, told India Today that Naik converted 12 Hindus and Jains to Islam at a 2008 event after a public debate.
“That's what I am telling you, that I spoke with him the moment we stepped down (from the podium) that whatever you are doing (is inappropriate),” Inamdar said.
“Those who want to convert and convert with full understanding, they need no public platform. According to me, that was all stage-managed,” he remarked.
The Azam Campus president further said: “Second way of looking at it is about getting money from the countries who take interest in these activities.”
He was most likely referring to Saudi Arabia that is currently hosting Naik.
Meanwhile, senior cleric Mufti Manzoor Ziayee has also alleged that Naik paid to converts and there is Saudi funding behind the IRF chief's proselytising programmes.
Notably, in 2015, Saudi Arabia's King Salman conferred the Arab country's most prestigious ‘Service to Islam’ award on Naik.
