Fans of Dr Zakir Naik on Orkut – Bridging science and religion
Islam never taught terrorism or taught to support any terrorists, Islam never taught to over rule the rights of women, neither prohibited girl’s education nor backed any force marriage etc. How many times have you heard this from any Muslim? May be many times but its sounds not too impressive when we see the other side of the coin where majority of terrorists of the world are killing innocents in the name of Islam, when we see Taliban is stopping young girls from going to school and more blah blah!
But story does not end here, but it has got a new start from here when an Indian medical doctor and a religious researcher became an orator and cleaned many misconceptions, myths and false propaganda of people who raise their finger against Islam which is undoubtedly a peaceful and pure religion, the youngest religion of the world and now has also reached to the top position in comparison to any other religion of the world regarding its followers. According to TimesOnline. This doctor cleaned all those misconceptions about Islam not only among non-Muslims but also among Muslims because if Islam is blamed for anything wrong then the reason is the wrong teachings of correct religion to them.
That is Dr. Zakir Abdul Karim Naik, very well known as Dr. Zakir Naik. A thin bodied man wearing skull cap and western dress i.e. jacket and trouser speaking confidently about Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and many other religions of the world. He is remarkably intelligent and a fast learner who has by hearted most of the holy books according to pages, verses and lines. Not a surprise if there are fans and followers of such man from all over the world. We discovered a big fan club of Dr. Zakir Naik on Orkut. Dr. Zakir Naik Community. One of the largest Islamic community on orkut with more than 80 thousand people from different part of the world and from different religion too.
Looking at this community, especially the forum part, one will feel as if a big shelf of books is arranged nicely and cleanly. This means the moderation of this community is really appreciable. More impressive is when we came to know that this one of the biggest Islamic community is moderated by only two dedicated members Hunain Khatri, and Wasim Syed. Same with the quality of contents and lengthy discussions by dedicated members of the community. These discussions are based on Islam with authentic sources of Holy Book Quran and Ahadith(Sayings of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.). It helps forming a bridge between people from different religious backgrounds and people who follow Islam. Obviously, this clears many myths about world’s most talk about religion and to understand the actual and correct teachings of Islam. The most active threads are Daily Quran Thread, Daily Ahadith Thread and Video Thread. Holding the rules and regulation to maintain peace, respect and morals for each other, the community members sets the example of friendly and peaceful community on orkut.
We invited Wasim Sayed, one of the moderators of Zakir Naik community on Rated-WOW! And asked him about his role and involvements in this community, Wasim Proudly replied, “I am moderating this community from last 2 years and feel joyful serving it”. Going back to the history of Zakir Naik community on orkut, it’s created in the early days of orkut in 2004 by one of the Zakir Naik’s fan Ahmed Din from Pakistan. Today, this community will soon reach the 100k mark soon. As Wasim said that everyday they receive 40-50 new requests from people willing to join this community, with some cross checking with the profiles they accept everyone who don’t look like a fake profile. People like Wasim and Hunain Khatri, another moderator of the community, work hard everyday to manage the community well which is evident from the way this community is flourishing.
When we asked Wasim “Why do you think, this community is different from many such communities which are based on the same topic as this one? What is it that makes it special?”
Wasim replied “As far as my observation goes… There are many other communities providing space for debates but most of them lead to fighting or hardcore extremism between differences of opinions amongst interfaith dialogue.
At first place there are not any other communities such big as Dr. Zakir Naik for interfaith dialogue & which are present, they does not carry the same approach of high standards of debates & peaceful environment, reason being, the moderation wing of our community which is very strict towards: Abuse, mockery or any other type of direct or indirect offences. The community aims to reach out similarities rather than differences amongst the different ideas that people carry. We build a foundation of our similarities on: Oneness of God as taught originally by many major religions of the world from Christianity to Hinduism. Community also allows discussion on Economic systems, Islamic Banking keeping a learned approach towards modern science, technology & presenting their roots from Islam. This is how the community is special & stands Different in its own rainbow colors spreading the light of truth, knowledge & peace – The Message of Islam”
Besides the motto or goal of the community which seems to be serious in nature, Zakir Naik community also provides the members to have a good time with each other on general thread where they can talk anything off topic. This gives them a change of mind at least for a short while. The community is also helping students who want to learn about Islam from many well learned scholars like the one Brother Mohsin Sheikh who appeared as usual community member till people on the community discovered him as a known scholar from Zakir Naik’s organization Islamic Research Foundation also known as IRF.
Apart from the debates and discussions online, the community has also worked offline together, where they ran some campaigns for good cause and were supported by thousands of members al l over, both Muslim and Non-Muslim. The community aims at brining the Revolution amongst Muslims and uniting the people of the world on one platform to figure out the chances & opportunities to make the world a serene place to dwell for all the people irrespective of their religions and putting their utmost efforts to achieve this.
There are many communities on orkut which talk about religions and debates on religions but this community of Zakir Naik’s fans is a great combination of Islam and modern science, comparative religions and other non-spiritual topic which are also necessary in everyone’s life.
Since long, social networking sites are becoming a full-size easily available cake for people who know nothing except spreading hate against each other, by flaming, by hacking communities or by making their profiles best hatred message centre for people to detest each other more. In such terrorized environment in virtual world communities like Dr.Zakir Naik’s community answers those bashers with one strong voice which is PEACE.
