Bangladesh information minister says administrative measures to ban Peace TV will be taken on Monday

The information ministry will take administrative measures on Monday to take Peace TV, a channel run by controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, off air in Bangladesh.

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu has said that his ministry will evaluate the issue and take action on Monday.
 
“There are issues related to administrative decision-making.. we don’t have time today, I will see about taking the administrative steps from Monday morning,” he said on Sunday hours after the Cabinet committee on law and order decided to ban the channel.
 
Inu’s announcement came at the beginning of a meeting with the owners and CEOs of the private television stations of the country at the Press Institute of Bangladesh in the afternoon.
 

Hasanul Haq Inu

“Peace TV is not consistent with Muslim society, the Quran, Sunnah, Hadith, Bangladesh’s Constitution, our culture, customs and rituals,” Inu said.

The Cabinet committee took the decision to ban the channel after allegations rose that Zakir Naik’s preaching was ‘inspiring acts of terrorism’.

Naik is the founder and president of Mumbai-based charity organisation Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), which owns Peace TV. The contents in English, Urdu and Bangla are broadcast from Dubai.

Initial investigations by Indian authorities have found Naik’s speeches to be provocative and objectionable. His explanations on Islam-related issues had also kicked off controversies in many instances.

The 50-year-old Indian preacher is banned from entering the UK and Canada and Peace TV is banned in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

At least two of the attackers who killed 20 hostages inside Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen at Gulshan-2 on Jul 1 night were said to have been his followers on the social media.

Reports have also emerged that several Indian youths inspired by Naik’s speeches have made their way to fight alongside the Islamic State in Syria.

After that, the Indian government on Friday launched a multi-pronged inquiry into controversies around the speeches and "online sermons" of the self-styled preacher.

While the Indian home ministry has moved for investigations by intelligence agencies, the Maharashtra government has also started probing Naik for his alleged radicalising influence on youths.

Police have been deployed outside the IRF office in South Mumbai in a move termed ‘a precautionary measure’ in the backdrop of recent developments, the Indian media have reported.

India’s Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told ‘The Indian Express’ on Friday, “I made enquiries with my officers. It is a matter concerning security of our country and social harmony.”

With demand for a ban on Peace TV in Bangladesh growing, several cable operators in Dhaka have said they were waiting for government directives on the free-to-air channel.

“We want to stop airing the channel in the whole country. But we are yet to receive a government order,” Mir Hossain Akhtar, head of Bangladesh Cable Owners Association, told bdnews24.com.

The channel has already been stopped in some parts of Dhaka, said SM Anwar Parvez, the former chief of the association.

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu had hinted at banning the 24-hour channel a day ago.

“We are aware of the allegations against this TV channel. Those will be investigated,” he told bdnews24.com. “The work will begin as soon as the ministry opens. We will take a stand on the issue without delay.”

Facing the heat in Bangladesh and India, Zakir Naik on Saturday claimed that no Bangladesh government official had said that he inspired the act of terrorism.

"I spoke to Bangladeshi government people. They told me that they do not believe I inspired this Bangladeshi terrorists to do this act of killing innocent people. That is a different issue that he was my fan," Naik said in a video released in Mumbai.