Zakir Naik is a great talker and seems to have a photographic mind as he can rattle away quotations from the holy books like a machinegun.

No doubt a lot of people find this very impressive, especially those who do not have knowledge of other religions, or even a deep knowledge of Islam.

Zakir himself acknowledges that people who do not have an in-depth knowledge of religion will easily believe what they hear from people they consider to be learned in religion.

He exploits his credentials of being a medical doctor to claim that he is a man of science and a logical person to attract crowds and mesmerise them with his rattling away of quotations. I wonder whether Islam approves of such self-praise.

His favourite message to the world is that every child is born a Muslim but as they grow they are influenced by their parents, teachers and others to “go astray”. For all these people who have gone astray, there is only one way to be saved, i.e. to believe in one God, in one Holy Book, and the last messenger of God, Prophet Muhammad.

Nowhere have I come across that the Prophet Muhammad had said all children were born Muslims and therefore the practising Muslims should preach to those who have gone astray, open their eyes and get them to “revert” to Islam. So, who is Zakir Naik to say something that the prophet himself did not say or command?

Zakir argues that there is no such thing as converting into Islam as all were born Muslims in the first place. So when a gone-astray non-Muslim adopts the religion of Islam, he is not converting to Islam, but reverting to Islam. This may be logical to him, but not to others.

He acknowledges that many of the Muslim countries in the world are not following the proper teachings of the Quran.

Goading Muslims to proselytise

If this be the case, then what begs the question is why is he not preaching in these countries for them to follow the proper teachings of the Quran, instead of marketing his philosophy that all children are born Muslims and become non-Muslims through the brainwashing of non-believers?

And what concern of his is the fate of non-Muslims who may not go to heaven, when there are, in his own words, so many Muslims in Muslim countries who are not fit to go to heaven as they are not following the correct teachings of the Quran?

Would his efforts be not better rewarded if he works to make the Muslims who are not following the proper teachings of the Quran to follow them?

His “lectures” are much rhetoric and not logical. He is in fact proselytising and goading Muslims to proselytise. God is not concerned about what “religion” one professes, what rituals one carries out, but rather about how a human treats another human, how he treats nature that sustains life.

What is destroying humankind today is not the fact that there are numerous religious beliefs, but the greed, corruption, crime, baby-dumping and all manner of uncivilised behaviour and the intolerance of the existence of those different from oneself.

If Zakir Naik is concerned about saving humankind, it is the uncivilised behaviour of human beings that he should be talking about.

What is the point of having every human being being a Muslim if the humans are not behaving towards each other as humans, if they are exploiting the weaker ones, if modern day slave trade goes on, if babies are produced only to be dumped in drains, dustbins and toilets?

No need to create ill-feelings

He must first address the un-Islamic moral character of those Muslims he says are not following the proper teachings of Islam. Convert or revert them to become Muslims that the Quran wants Muslims to be.

No need to waste time and create ill feelings among the believers of different faiths by talking of the greatness of one religion over another, by comparing one religion with another.

This serves no purpose, except to make some people feel superior to others. The Prophet Muhammad did not do so, and neither did he order anyone to do so. Zakir should be talking about the moral character of people and not of their religions.

The prophet never said that the whole world must be of one religion, but all prophets said that people should be of a certain moral character. Even the laws of the countries require this.

If Zakir wants to talk in Malaysia, he should be talking about corruption, fraud, baby-dumping, Mat Rempit, all manner of crime, the auditor-general’s reports and similar topics about the moral character of the persons involved in such activities.

He should be putting the fear of God in them, and not telling the non-Muslims they will not go to heaven if they do not “revert” to the religion of their birth.