Tiruananthpuram: Amid reports of over 17 people missing in Kerala who are suspected to have left the country to join the ISIS, a claim by the family of two Christian brothers who converted to Islam has put the spotlight once again on controversial preacher Zakir Naik.
According to the family, the duo was in touch with Naik and had visited Mumbai to meet him.
"My sons used to visit Naik when they were students a few years ago. Once, they also took their brother-in-law to meet Naik in Mumbai and get him converted to Islam. But the conversion did not take place because their brother-in-law objected to it,” The Indian Express quoted the duo's father as saying.
According to stepmother Gracy, the brothers who went missing from Palakkad along with their wives, it was the younger brother, Beston, who first converted to Islam last year and became Yahiya. This was followed by her eldest son Bexen converting to an Essah and marrying a Muslim woman three years ago.
Gracy, however, claimed that Bexen was a devout Christian and was unwilling to convert to Islam but the insistence of his younger brother who put pressure on him to join Islam prevailed over him.
"Before they got converted, some youths from Kasaragod used to visit them in Palakkad. Now we have been told that those youngsters are among the missing group,” Gracy told the daily.
Naik is under scanner following revelations that two of the five young militants who massacred 20 hostages, including an Indian, at a popular cafe in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka on July 1, drew their inspiration from his speeches.
Naik, a popular but controversial Islamic orator and founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, is banned in UK and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia. He is wildly popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV although his preaching often demeans other religions and even other Muslim sects, the report said.
Other terror suspects who were reportedly fans of Naik include Afghan-American Najibulla Zazi, who was arrested in 2009 for an alleged conspiracy to bomb the New York subway, Dr Kafeel Ahmed who stormed Glasgow airport in an explosives-laden car in 2007, and Mumbai’s Rahil Sheikh, arrested for the 7/11 serial train blasts.
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