Mumbai: Mumbai-based Islamic scholar Zakir Naik yesterday said he plans to challenge the ban order on him by the British Home Office in British courts. “The decision is politically motivated by the new government. My lawyers have already examined it in detail and we have a very strong case,” Naik, a 44-year old medico-turned preacher, said yesterday afternoon.
Naik’s lawyers in Britain plan to move the concerned courts early next week to get a reversal of the June 16 order of Home Secretary Theresa May, served on him a day before his scheduled departure to London (June 17).
If the courts grant a stay on or a reversal of the exclusion order, Naik is hopeful of gong ahead with the planned peace conference convened by him there next weekend, or else it would be cancelled.
Expressing outrage over the exclusion order, Naik said he has been giving religious lectures in Britain since the past 16 years besides holding a five-year visa to enter that country.
“I have traveled all over the world, but never before in my past 16 years, anywhere in the world have I faced such a situation. It is tantamount to a mockery of the freedom of speech and expression,” Naik said.
Terming the decision as “a politically motivated one,” he said that the new British government has been under pressure to ban persons indulging in radical propaganda.
Source: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/india/54432-zakir-naik-to-challenge-britishentry-ban-.html
Related News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/10357263.stm
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