Written by Nadiah Zainal
Zakir Naik was a trained medical doctor that turned into an Islamic preacher. Avery well known Islamic preacher that has travelled around the world to give sermons. Zakir Naik was accused to influence terrorism in his speech several times. An excerpt of the statement taken from one of his sermon; “As far as terrorist is concerned, I tell the Muslims that every Muslims should be a terrorist”. Dhaka Terror Attack happened in July 2016 where five militants took hostages and opened fire on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan Thana. One of the terrorist involved in the attack said in his Facebook that Zakir Naik’s words and writing has inspired him to do it (Mahound Paradise, 2016).
International Media: The Hindu
1. Identity:
The Launched in 1878, The Hindu is one of the few newspapers that are English based language. It is the leading national newspaper of India and it is highly respected for its wide comprehensive coverage of national and international political news. In India, most of the newspaper has its own political ideologies and The Hindu does not go far from it. From the news published in the newspaper, it can be seen that The Hindu are strongly attached with the Left-Wing parties which focuses more on culture, traditional and religion.
2. Agenda:
The Facebook statement made by one of the terrorist has made the Indian government and some of its people are not at ease seeing Zakir Naik still free and can still give speeches around the world. Accordingly, The Hindu newspaper, does not seen to be on preacher’s side in a quite subtle way. As mentioned before, The Hindu newspaper ideologies is based on centre to left wings. All the published reports are targeting Zakir Naik and his organization. It does not look like they are backing him up.
3. Practicalities:
From the article published by The Hindu regarding Zakir Naik terrorism allegations, it showed that their reports are based on their own investigations. All of the information stated in the write up can be easily retrieved from the Internet but they look for variety of information from variety of sources and putting it together into one article. The author does not only retrieved information from other sources but also did his own interview with Zakir Naik’s brother-in-law. He did a background check before writing and publishing it.
Local Media: Malay Mail Online
1. Identity:
First published on 1st December 1896, Malay mail is an English language newspaper that is based in Kuala Lumpur. It is also an independent online newspaper that covers the news of the day, be it politics or lifestyle. Malay Mail words of wisdom “we do not want to change the world – after all, we are journalists and not activist – but strive to report the changes in a balanced and non-partisan manner”. In regards to Zakir Naik’s allegations by the public, the story published by them does not necessarily taking sides on either Zakir Naik or the Indian or the Bangladesh government. It is somehow balanced between them agreeing and disagreeing the fact that Zakir Naik promotes terrorism.
2. Agenda:
Zakir Naik has delivered his speeches in Malaysia quite often. He has quite a number of supporters in Malaysia. Malay Mail online did a neutral report on Zakir Naik’s terrorism speech that inspired one of the terrorist involved in Dhaka Attacks. It is more to inform Malaysian of what had happened and which part of his speech that has inspired the terrorist. Not all of the Malaysians knows Zakir Naik so it is their job to make sure the details are all there
3. Practicalities:
From what they have published it is safe to say that the journalist in Malay Mail online and some of their published reports are the results from their own investigation. An article by Ida Lim and Kamles published on July 6th titled “Premature to assume Zakir Naik encouraged terrorism, deputy minister says” showed their investigation. The authors went to interview the deputy minister, Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki. Malay Mail online wants to retrieved other people’s comment and perception to back up any information that has been published. Malay Mail online does go to other media agencies to retrieve some of the basics information about the topic but after they have received it, they did their own investigation to support their story. With their tagline “The paper that cares” it does fit the mould.
Reference:
Biswas, S. (2016, July 6). Who is Zakir Naik? Where the Dhaka attack terrorist ‘inspired
by him’? Retrieved from http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/dr-zakir-naik-dhaka-attack-terrorists-isis-islam-cleric-bangladesh/1/708745.html
Lim, I., & Kumar, K. (2016, July 6). Premature to assume Zakir Naik encouraged terrorism, deputy minister says. Malay Mail Online. Retrieved from http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/premature-to-assume-zakir-naik-encouraged-terrorism-deputy-minister-says