Dr Zakir Naik Pope Benedict XVI dialogue

Dr Zakir Naik invites Pope Benedict XVI for open interfaith dialogue
Friday September 29, 2006 (1940 PST)

JEDDAH: Eminent scholar of comparative religion Dr. Zakir Naik has invited Pope Benedict XVI for an open inter-faith dialogue.

The Pope`s recent statement, which included a quote from a 14th century Byzantine emperor, sparked outrage in the Muslim world. In his latest efforts to calm down the Muslim anger the Pope invited diplomats from 20 Islamic countries at his summer residence in south of Rome.

This extraordinary gathering was seen as the latest effort by Benedict XVI to quell the furor stirred two weeks ago by controversial remarks he made about Islam. He is attempting to channel the emotion into what he calls an authentic and respectful dialogue.

Dr. Naik sees the Pope`s statement on Islam as pre-planned. "He (the Pope) knew very well what he was speaking at University of Regensburg in Germany on September 12," he said.

"The Pope`s apology to the Muslims was at all not an apology rather it was putting salt on the wounds," said Dr. Naik, adding that the Pope should have explicitly apologized and retracted his statement.

Benedict XVI seems to be toeing the same line of neo-con as that of President George Bush, he said. Dr. Naik said if the Pope wants to initiate an authentic dialogue then he is more than willing to participate in such an inter-faith debate.

"I am more than willing to participate in the inter-faith dialogue with Pope Benedict XVI. I am ready on any topic he (the Pope) wishes as long as it focuses on Quran and the Bible," Dr. Naik said. He said he can go to Rome or Vatican to meet the Pope.

"I can go to Rome and to Vatican on my own expense if an Italian visa is arranged for me," he told ONLINE after delivering his lecture on "20 most common questions about misconceptions of Islam," organized by Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh, attended by a number of ambassadors, diplomatic staff and members of the Sri Lankan community.

Dr. Naik during the past three years has delivered over 600 lectures in the US and Canada. "I am absolutely ready for an open and public debate with the pope under live international TV coverage," he said.

Let the 1.3 billion Muslims and 2 billion Christians around the world listen to the debate based on equal slot of time allotted to both sides, he said. "It is not only a debate but also a question and answer session allowing the people to ask queries," he said. He said he is not in favor of closed-door meeting with the Pope, as was suggested by his predecessor Pope John Paul II, when South African-based Islamic scholar Ahmed Deedat invited him for open dialogue, he said.

"Pope John Paul told Shaikh Deedat to come to his cabin for a debate," he said and added why does the inter-faith dialogue be held behind closed doors? Dr. Naik said the best way to counter the onslaught on Islam is that the Muslims should have their own media.

"Unfortunately, most of the international media is controlled by the Western (lobby). Unless you (Muslims) have your own media they (Westernerns) can very conveniently convert black into white, day into night, a hero into a villain and a villain into a hero," he said.

Dr. Naik, who has launched his own religious satellite channel called Peace TV, said Muslims do have their own media but what he meant by international media is similar to the Time and Newsweek and TV channels such as the BBC and CNN, when Muslims can project their views and convey the message in right perspective.

"I have a future plan to launch a news channel," he said. He said there are at least 100 Muslims that he knew, who can take such an initiative and launch at least 10 satellite channels.

People should not wait for Muslims organizations such as IIRA or OIC to take steps in this direction, he said.

"Any individual businessman can take the initiative if Muslim bodies such as OIC or IIRA are not coming forward in this direction," he said.

Dr. Naik has also endorsed former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhamamd`s views that the Muslims should stop to operate US dollar-denominated bank accounts. "I have been preaching (that) Muslims should stop dealing in dollar," he said. He also called on the Muslim world to launch an Islamic currency to counter dealing in dollar.

Muslim countries should not peg their currencies to the dollar. "By that time the individuals and businessmen should stop dealing in dollar," he said. He said he has been mobilizing the people wherever he goes asking them not to keep dollar accounts or even the currency.

The moment you exchange dollars you simply convert that amount with any currency such as riyal, dirham, dinar or be it yen or euro "but not to keep in dollar-denomination account," he said.

Asim Iqbal 2nd 's message: 

"Spread this challenge given by Dr Zakir Naik to as many media options like Time, Newsweek, BBC, CNN, Newspapers, Channels, magazines and keep spreading this challenge until pope accepts the challenge! or Christians assign a new pope who then accepts the challenge, but keep spreading this challenge on all powerful media options. Publish this challenge to as many places as you can and as soon as you can!" 

Copied from:

www.geocities.com/asimiqbal2nd/zakirnaikvspopebenedict.htm

Some pictures of Dr Zakir Naik who is one of the contestants in the open interfaith dialogue between Dr Zakir Naik and Pope Benedict XVI 16 . If Pope Benedict XVI 16 doesn't run away from such a warm , friendly , simple , and open invitation , this dialogue can easily happen and the entire world can witness an open dialogue live on popular TV channels and other media.  

What does Pope Benedict XVI actually want ? If Pope Benedict XVI was really serious when he said he wanted dialogue with Muslims, then there is not a single genuine excuse to allow Pope Benedict XVI to reject Dr Zakir Naik's open invitation to Pope benedict XVI for open interfaith dialogue.   

Pope Benedict XVI had previously shown keen interest in dialogue with Muslims and even called for dialogue with Muslims i.e. before Dr Zakir Naik issued the invitation to pope Benedict XVI for open interfaith dialogue, Pope Benedict XVI appeared like he was ready for dialogue with Muslims and was interested in dialogue with Muslims. But looks like after Dr Zakir Naik has issued this invitation to Pope Benedict XVI , Pope Benedict XVI is acting like he never got an invitation or he doesn't even know about anything like this. Similarly I have even emailed to contact emails of a couple of popular western media magazines regarding Dr Zakir Naik's invitation to Pope Benedict XVI, but they too are acting as if they know nothing about the invitation given by Dr Zakir Naik to pope Benedict XVI for open interfaith dialogue. 

You might have read on internet at sites with The Title " Pope wants dialogue with Muslims " .

Now this looks curious and very harmful for the very reputation of Christianity , i.e. Pope Benedict XVI or western media may know something about Christianity that they don't want the entire Christian world to witness and they may know that Islam is a religion of Peace and if such a debate happens the entire word can see the truth about Islam and all the misconceptions about Islam can be removed.  

What is Pope Benedict XVI up to and what is western media upto by ignoring this invitation by Dr Zakir Naik to Pope benedict XVI for open interfaith dialogue?

But whatever they are up to Truth seekers have an important task to perform and that task is:

"Spread this challenge given by Dr Zakir Naik to Pope Benedict XVI in as many media options like Time, Newsweek, BBC, CNN, Newspapers, Channels, magazines and keep spreading this challenge until pope Benedict XVI accepts the challenge! or Christians assign a new pope who then accepts the challenge, but keep spreading this challenge on all powerful media options. Publish this challenge to as many places as you can and as soon as you can!" 

Dawah Check mate on pope Benedict XVI and Christianity by Dr Zakir Naik 
As they say in chess when the king (in this case pope currently being treated like king of Christianity) doesn't have a way of escape, it is called check mate . Similarly in the current situation, if the pope accepts the dialogue challenge we know what is expected to happen and if he runs away , the reputation of Christianity will be at a stake but for that:

Keep spreading this challenge:
as much as you can
to as many places as you can
and as soon as you can

Challenge must be spread as much as possible.
Lets compare this to chess. In chess "Check Mate" is a move in which the king of the opponent is trapped.
1. If king moves, king dies and opponent looses the game.  
2. If he doesn't move the king and leaves the game, it is counted as surrender or give up.

In both of the above cases we are the winner.

So Dr Zakir Naik has put a check mate on Pope and Christianity .
If pope accepts the challenge, Pope Benedict and Christianity will be exposed to a level never seen before i.e. a huge population of people will be able to witness the hidden truths about Christianity for the first time and misconceptions about Islam will be removed Insha'ALLAH!
And
If he runs away then it will be taken as surrender without even trying or in other words pope is already convinced Bible isn't correct and pope doesn't trust Christianity and Bible.  Because if he actually believes Bible is the word of God then there is not a single excuse which allows him to run away from the dialogue specially when previously he has himself shown interest in dialogue with Muslims.

So most probably Pope and western media will try to ignore this challenge and act as if this never happened. 

We Muslims must however try to spread this challenge or Pope's surrender to as many places as possible.

I don't understand why those 2 billion Christians don't read the entire Bible and then the entire Qur'an. I warmly invite each and every Christian to read the entire Bible and then the entire Qur'an and then of course leave Christianity and seriously consider entering Islam, the religion of Peace.   Atleast now wake up you 2 billion Christians, of course decreasing every day, not 2 billion any more . OK atleast read the Bible thoroughly. That too will be your answer why Pope isn't accepting Dr Zakir Naik's Challenge??? There is another challenge for each and every Christian.   

But the Muslims must spread this challenge by Dr Zakir Naik to Pope Benedict XVI as much as possible.