Saudi Arabian King Gives Controversial Islamic Cleric Top Award

220px-Dr_Zakir_NaikSaudi Arabia has long been criticized for its extreme religious beliefs as part of its devotion to Wahhabism. Now the Kingdom has generated more controversy by giving one of Saudi Arabia’s most prestigious prizes to Zakir Naik, an Islamic school who said that the Koran (Quran) “allows Muslims to have sex with female slaves” and seemed to support Osama Bin Laden, at least to the extent to which he was “fighting the enemies of Islam.” Saudi Arabia’s new King Salman gave Naik the King Faisal International Prize (KFIP) 2015 personally.

Naik, 49, has been barred from travel to Britain because of what the country cited as “unacceptable behavior.”

The statement on slaves came when the Indian Islamic scholar observed that “There are many verses in the Quran which say you can have sex with your wife and with whatever your right hand possesses. . . . Right hand possesses . . . which means your slaves.”

The King Faisal International Prize recognises the outstanding works of individuals and institutions in five categories — Service to Islam, Islamic Studies, Arabic Language and Literature, Medicine and Science. Naik received his award for awarded the KFIP for his services to Islam for a lifetime’s teaching about Islam, including his work founding of the Peace Channel, a comparative religion TV channel. He was given a handwritten Arabic certificate on the laureate’s achievements, a commemorative 24-carat 200-gram gold medal and a cheque of USD 200,000.

While Saudi Arabia has opposed such extremist groups like ISIS, the country continues to maintain medieval laws that deny women basic freedoms, deny basic freedoms of speech and religion to other faiths, and impose extreme Sharia law on its citizens.

118 thoughts on “Saudi Arabian King Gives Controversial Islamic Cleric Top Award”

  1. Annie
    SO true! Each one of us could provide 10 such opinions spouted by “men of God” across the spectrum of faith. In light of what I have heard here alone from some of our friends, whatever Naik said was tame!

  2. Watch the video, listen to what he says, judge for yourself, don’t rely on Pogo’s Islamaphobia. Don’t rely on my bias against fundamentalists, listen for yourself.

  3. Pogo
    What does the guy actually teach? Tell us, please.
    According to the prof and you, he has only said 3 things, osama, sex with slaves, homosexuality.

  4. The more we hear from the Mideast, the more Western feminists sound like insular whiners.

  5. On the video posted by Warren @ 8:14 on the topic of homosexuality, listening to Dr. Naik’s views, could be a fundamentalist Christian.

  6. Oh boy!
    What a dumb post!
    The man is a bad guy because of his opinions?
    Didn’t Obama get the Nobel peace Prize when he has been droning people all across the globe?
    Didn’t Bush said to have gone to Iraq based on what His Father told him?

    Yes, the Quran does say you could have sex with your slaves (1400 years ago) BUT, according to well-established rules that made them a concubine with the associated rights, and when they had a child or converted to Islam, they were to be freed. Either way, they were to be treated well.
    It was actually an improvement on whatever was going on there at the time.

    Anyway, to cherry pick what Zakir Naik says is duplicitous at best. If one really wants to know who he is, his videos are abundant on youtube and this site http://www.peacetv.tv/ is his.

    I don’t agree with everything he says, but he hasn’t said anything that others across every spectrum haven’t said.

  7. That goes to show how religion can be interpreted any way the local present nut case wants. What was meant by ‘what ever the right hand possesses is that if your wife has a headache, je*k off with your right hand. Now was that difficult.

  8. Remind me again why we allow immigration and even travel from Saudi Arabia?

  9. Islam is incompatible with Western civilization.

    Police investigating grooming and sexual abuse of teenage girls as young as 13 in Rochdale charge 10 men
    Muslims all.

    And elsewhere, as March 2015 begins, the daily Islamic terror count:
    “2015.03.02 Iraq al-Baghdadi
    ISIS militants send shells into a home, killing a woman and two children.
    2015.03.02 Niger Bosso
    Boko Haram members burn down a village and murder two fishermen.
    2015.03.02 Nigeria Baga
    Two men are beheaded on video by radical Islamists.
    2015.03.02 Afghanistan Jalalabad
    Two children are pulled into pieces by Holy Warrior bombers.
    2015.03.01 Egypt Aswan
    Islamists kill two people in a tourist town with a planted bomb.

    Here at home, however, my senator Al Franken boycotted Netanyahu’s speech.

  10. The only reason Saudi Arabia is against ISIS is that is wants to restore the caliphate and Saudi Arabia was part of that. All that oil money would go to Mosul.

  11. When one pretends to know the directives of some deity, anything is permissible.

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