 "Zakir Naik (Photo credit: Wikipedia)")
The Home Ministry has issued a notice to close down the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) run by Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, and the government is mulling a bigger crackdown on his broadcasting operations. Company documents from the UK and India show that Naik has been funding his broadcast operations from both countries and transmitting them across the world.
The programmes aired on Peace TV across the world including to Bangladesh through Peace TV Bangla, were produced by Harmony Media Private Ltd in Mumbai. Documents show that a large number of these programmes featuring Naik preaching his brand of Islam were funded by foreign donations. In addition, the operations of these companies were also being funded through unsecured loans amounting to crores, given by Naik and two of his aides, who were also directors in the company. The TV shows featuring Naik were then broadcast on Peace TV across the world. Peace TV, meanwhile, was being funded partly through the London-based arm of Naik’s NGO, Islamic Research Foundation International. The British arm of Naik’s NGO funding the broadcast of his India-made shows was located in Birmingham in UK’s West Midlands county. This location has a large population of Asians -– especially Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.
The Mumbai-based company, Harmony Media Pvt Ltd, was founded by Naik who continued to hold 90 per cent of its shares along with a relative and also its directorship till 2013. A few months after the company was incorporated in 2005, it received foreign funding worth Rs 22 crore in addition to Rs 2 crore for purchasing equipment from abroad. For the next two years, Harmony Media did not receive any money from abroad, according to its financial statements.
However, in 2008, it received almost Rs 2.5 crore in unsecured loans from three of its directors, including Zakir Naik, who allegedly loaned close to Rs 87 lakh. One of the other two directors was Amir Gazdar, who loaned Rs 1.4 crore to the company that year.
Interestingly, Gazdar was also Naik’s business associate in the UK. Gazdar was a director along with Naik in a UK-based media company called Lords Production House. It is unclear from where exactly Naik and Gazdar got these funds from to inject as unsecured loans in their Mumbai-based media company. In some shows, Naik allegedly called for killing of Jews, advocated wife-beating and justified suicide bombing.
Both Gazdar and Naik continued to pump in anything between Rs 45 lakh and Rs 1 crore over the next few years. All these loans from Naik and others are shown to have been repaid by 2012, just before he divested his stake in the company.
By 2013, Harmony Media was also earning foreign exchange from across the world for its programmes. These earnings were classified as ‘episode charges’ in its financial statements. Close to Rs 6.5 crore was earned in 2013, while the next year saw the earnings increase to Rs 10 crore from the sale of programmes abroad. In 2015, Naik’s company again received Rs 10 crore as ‘episode charges’ from outside India.
At the same time, the Mumbai company was also making payments across the world worth several crores, as charges for the purchase of broadcast equipment. In 2013, almost Rs 1 crore was paid abroad while the figure swelled to Rs 5 crore the next year.
While Naik's Indian operations were producing the content, the vehicle on which they were aired was Peace TV. Documents show that Peace TV was being funded and managed largely from London. It was being operated through three entities – Islamic Research Foundation International, Lord Production House and Universal Broadcasting Corporation Limited.
While the Islamic Research Foundation was the funding vehicle for UBCL, the funds were being largely used for Peace TV operations. In the very year of its incorporation in 2008, the UK-based Islamic foundation contributed close to £1 million to Peace TV. The very same year the channel launched its Urdu language operations. By 2011, close to £4 million had been pumped into the channel by the Islamic foundation. That year, the Bangla language service of Peace TV was launched. It is the Bangla language broadcasts of Peace TV that were reported by the Bangladeshi press as having inspired the Dhaka café attackers. Between 2012 and 2015, another £5.5 million was injected into Peace TV through the Birmingham-based foundation.
The other UK entity related to Naik was called Lord Production House. British authorities had attempted to close this production house twice in 2010 and 2012 but couldn’t do so.
The Islamic Research Foundation International was also funding Universal Broadcasting Corporation Limited, also owned by Naik. The foundation had donated close to £2 million in 2013-14 to the company. This company held the broadcasting rights for Peace TV in the UK.
It is still unclear from where Naik’s UK-based foundation funding Peace TV was receiving millions of pounds in donations.
With the Indian government moving a step closer to putting a lid on Naik’s NGO, it might still find it difficult to contain the funding and operations of his broadcasting business.
