Israel, seeing this new turn as a threat to its own security, will be receiving $30 bn from the US to allay its trepidation.

It seems likely that we will see Middle East firepower increase exponentially if the bill is passed through congress. Satellite guided missiles and improved air forces (probably better fighter planes etc) are just some of the proposed arms on offer.

Saudi Arabia is currently the sponsor of CAIR (Center for American Islamic Relations) and mosques throughout Europe and America where Jihadi propaganda runs rife. Some of the countries offered weapons are currently linked with terrorist activities around the world.

-TruTh

After watching a few Zakir Naik videos online, and almost being convinced by him, we thought it natural to find out how much of what he says is truth and how much is, in fact, puffery.  I knew that Dr. Naik enjoys huge support throughout India, the Muslim world and most of the world, as a whole, where he regularly lectures and answers the usual menagerie of questions for skeptics and believers alike.  In the following analysis we have challenged Dr. Naik’s common answers, placing each statistic and observation under the light of truth.  Our litmus test for accuracy was based on highly regarded websites and government statistics.  We encourage you not to be fooled next time you see Dr. Naik’s face on the screen; don’t take his every word as evident because he is a doctor, rather question his logic and inflated remarks on your own accord.             

The following is just one of many questions posed to Dr. Naik.  It involves the question of polygyny in Islam and can be found on his website^A. Definitions according to Merriam Webster dictionary:   

1. Polygamy- marriage in which a spouse of either sex may have more than one mate at the same time  2. Polygyny- the state or practice of having more than one wife or female mate at a time                      3. Polyandry- the state or practice of having more than one husband or male mate at one time 

Why is Polygyny allowed in Islam?

In an attempt to answer the question of polygyny in Islam, Dr. Zakir Naik first makes the following claim 

“Qur’an is the only religious book, on the face of this earth, that contains the phrase ‘marry only one’. There is no other religious book that instructs men to have only one wife. In none of the other religious scriptures, whether it be the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Geeta….” 

This is a blatant lie.  Either Dr. Naik hasn’t read all the scriptures thoroughly or he chooses rather to glorify the Quran blindly devoid of real knowledge.  Frankly, we can’t grant Dr. Naik the excuse of ignorance, he is a medical, a veteran of religious lecture and debate as well as an author.  He has delivered speeches all around the world and is looked up to for guidance and as a role model to Muslims.  Surely, we can’t allow him even the slightest of errors when he has such great influence. We will first show that the Quran is NOT the only scripture that calls for monogyny:  There is an incident in Ramayana (The Ramayana is one of the two epic Hindu poems, the other being the Mahabharata)¹ in which Suparnaakha, a rakchasi, goes to Shri Ram and asks him to marry her.  Shri Ram tells her that he has taken ek patni vrata (pledge to keep only one wife) and refuses to marry.  This pledge was considered to be a pledge of virtue.  The people who used to marry only one woman were highly respected among their contemporaries.  This is a very old concept in Hinduism and innumerable more examples can be found on closer examination of the Hindu texts.    In Christianity, there are numerous explicit examples of monogyny being praised and commanded by apostles of Jesus Christ.  There are many implicit examples we will not explore because of their ambiguity.  Here are a few concrete excerpts: 

Corinthians 7:2. “But for fear of fornication (sexual intercourse), let every man have his own wife: and let every woman have her own husband.” Timothy 1.3:2. “It behoveth therefore a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, of good behavior, chaste, given to hospitality, a teacher” 

*A bishop is a high ranking clergy position and an example of a godly way of living. 

Timothy 1.3:12. “Let deacons be the husbands of one wife: who rule well their children and their own houses.” 

*A deacon is an official in the church of lower stature than the priest but nonetheless a role model for any member of the church. 

Matthew 19:6. “Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.” 

*Plainly, Matthew is speaking of the union of marriage, during which two souls, or bodies, become one. 

Matthew 19:9. “And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery” 

*The above verse is complicit with Matthew 19:6 (above) indicating no more than one wife is allowed for a man.Bible Verses². Dr. Naik has misguided his audience to justify these practices in Islam.  His logic and reasoning is unforgivable considering the authoritative nature in his claim.  His only aim is to justify Islamic practices, no matter how backward they are.  Conclude for yourself whether a self proclaimed scholar is purposely lying or is just misinformed.   Another of Dr. Naik’s arguments is to support polygyny based on the number of males and females in the world.  This is one, in a chain of claims, attempting to salvage support for polygyny.  We will analyze each claim separately. Here is Dr. Naik’s first claim. 

“Average life span of females is more than that of males. By nature males and females are born in approximately the same ratio. A female child has more immunity than a male child. A female child can fight the germs and diseases better than the male child. For this reason, during the pediatric age itself there are more deaths among males as compared to the female…. India has more male population than female due to female feticide and infanticide. If this evil practice is stopped, then India too will have more females as compared to males.”  

Once again Dr. Naik is using insubstantial reasoning to support his argument.  He deliberately twists the facts to fool people.  Usually, people don’t analyze his arguments, thus he gets away with his lies and deception.  In this case, Dr. Naik says that there are more females than males at pediatric and all other ages.  His logic is that since there are always more females than males, limiting the marriage to one will make it impossible for all women to find husbands.  So, on this basis, it’s only logical to let a man marry more than one woman.  Let’s look at the population distribution¹ according to age in a few countries.

Now let’s look at the world sex ratio³: 

Sex ratio: at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.064 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.024 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.781 male(s)/female
total population in the world:  1.014 male(s)/female (2007 est.) 

The above data clearly proves that India is not the only country where males outnumber females.  The same trend exists in many other countries where female infanticide is NOT practiced.  In many countries females outnumber males only in the age group of 65 years and above.  Zakir Naik claims that people should follow Islam because it’s practical and logical but this stark contradiction can’t be his idea of practicality and logic?  As we can clearly see, there are countries like Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia, where even aggregate male population outnumbers female population and renders the logic of polygyny limp.  What should these countries do?  How about a complete ban on polygyny and allowance of polyandry?   If Allah was so concerned about women remaining unmarried why didn’t he make men in such a way so that they don’t suffer from diseases which kill him at a younger age than women?  Zakir Naik is so desperate to convert people that he has mastered deception to convince them that Islamic practices are beneficial.  However, the reality is vastly different. 

Zakir Naik also claims that, in India, males outnumber females because of female infanticide (killing of babies).  He says that if female infanticide is stopped then females will outnumber males.  If female infanticide is the only reason males outnumber females then there should be more females than males in every country where female infanticide is not practiced.  However, this is not the case.  It means that Zakir Naik’s claim is false.  He is using his bag of tricks to justify Islamic practices. Zakir Naik further makes the following claim. 

“In the USA, women outnumber men by 7.8 million. New York alone has one million more females as compared to the number of males, and of the male population of New York one-third are gays i.e. sodomites. The U.S.A as a whole has more than twenty-five million gays. This means that these people do not wish to marry women.”  

Apparently Dr. Naik doesn’t understand the meaning of gay.  In most of the world “gay” has become interchangeable with “homosexual” and may refer to both men and women of a homosexual nature.  In his speech he talks about gay men but doesn’t talk about women who do not wish to marry men.  Does he think that lesbians don’t exist or he is in a religiously induced state of denial?  Dr. Naik’s claim, that there are 25 million gay men in US, is outrageous.  As always he doesn’t give his source of information for this hefty claim.  According to a 2006 Williams Institute report⁴ there are about 8.8 million gays, lesbians and bisexuals in America.  We can safely say that half of the gays, lesbians and bisexuals are gay men, therefore about 4.4 million.  This data completely exposes Dr. Naik and shows the degree to which he will fabricate the truth to convert the gullible and unaware. New York, in fact, has approximately 592,000 gays, lesbians and bisexuals⁴. 

Let us see if Zakir Naik has a point here.  He doesn’t mention whether he is speaking of New York state or New York City, obviously this makes a huge difference to the figures he gives.  We will show you some different scenarios of what he might have meant and try to see the logic behind it:If Dr. Naik meant N.Y state (pop.  19,254,630: M 9,146,748, F 9,829,709⁵) then gay men comprise 3.24% of the male population and women outnumber men by 682,961.  Compare this to Dr. Naik’s estimated one-third (or 33%) of New York men as being ‘sodomites’ (more than 3 million in the case of NY State and above 1.2 million in the case of NY city).

If, on the other hand, he meant N.Y City (pop.  8,143,197: M 3,794,204, F 4,214,074⁵) and ALL gay men in the state happened to live in N.Y City, then they would comprise 7.8% of the male population and women would outnumber men by 419,870.This clearly shows a huge disparity in the figures provided by Zakir Naik.  His figures are ten times the actual figures in the case of gays in New York and he roughly doubled the excess of women over men.  Did his imagination run wild on this point to get a furor going?  It seems a little too convenient that his facts are heavily leaning towards his argument and away from the truth.       

He also says that males outnumber females by 7.8 million in the US.  Let’s examine his argument closely.  Here is an age distribution chart of US according to sex⁶. 

Age Group        Males                 Females

0-4                   9,810,733          9,365,065

5-9                 10,523,277        10,026,228

10-14             10,520,197        10,007,875

15-19             10,391,004          9,828,886

20-24               9,687,814          9,276,187

25-29               9,798,760          9,582,576

30-34              10,321,769       10,188,619

35-39              11,318,696       11,387,968

40-44              11,129,102       11,312,761

45-49               9,889,506        10,202,898

50-54               8,607,724          8,977,824  

Dr. Naik deliberately doesn’t mention the specific age group in which females outnumber males, a wily and devious thing to do in a verbal debate, where statistics are not readily available.  The reality is that in the age group of 0-34 in the US, males outnumber females.  The same pattern can be found in many other countries.  For example, In Denmark⁷ males outnumber females till the age of 59, in UK⁷ and France⁷ males outnumber females till the age of 49.  In most of the Muslim countries males outnumber females, yet Muslims are the ones supporting polygyny and are insisting every country join in.              If you watch carefully you can see that Dr. Zakir Naik’s videos and debates are nothing but magician tricks and elocution combined.  He doesn’t provide anything substantial in the way of evidence or hard reason but manages to convince scores of people with his enormous lies and appeal to the emotion.   He then makes the following claim:  

“Great Britain has four million more females as compared to males. Germany has five million more females as compared to males. Russia has nine million more females than males. God alone knows how many million more females there are in the whole world as compared to males.” 

Zakir Naik claims that Germany and England have several million more females than males.  This is a scandalous claim with no root in evidence, intended to mislead the people.  Zakir Naik, for some weird reason, concluded that there are more females in the world than males.  Again this claim is baseless.  In the age group of 0-64 males actually outnumber females.  0-64 is the most important and relevant age group since it’s the age group in which the vast majority of people get married and produce children.  By finding that male and female population is almost balanced we can assume that most people will find mates during their lives.  Not only this, aggregate male population for the whole world is more than female population.  Dr. Naik claims that God only knows how many more females there are in the whole world as compared to males.  This is very unscholarly.  Had he tried, he could have discovered that there are more males in the world than females.  The assumption that God alone knows the truth shows his approach towards knowledge.  All his research, all his study, is limited to creating deceptive arguments, to justify Islamic beliefs and practices.  Any study, any fact, any data which directly goes against Islamic beliefs is completely ignored by him.  He looks at the world through the narrow filter of Islam. 

I personally don’t care if a man has one wife or four.  It’s up to the man and consent of the women to decide.  The point I want to make is that Dr. Zakir Naik’s reasoning to support polygyny is flawed.  He supports it simply because it’s an Islamic practice, not because it’s right or wrong.  Had the Quran said that a woman should marry four men, Dr. Naik would have supported that too. Mohammad, or Allah, never gave a reason for their support of polygyny.  It was something very normal in that society at that time.  Allah never said that polygyny should be practiced simply because females outnumber males.  It’s something Muslims say to make their practices look logical and attractive to the non-Muslim world and potential converts.  The truth is that the practice of polygyny is a result of a patriarchal culture that predates Islam.  Men are allowed to have multiple sex partners, whereas women don’t have any such liberty.  The idea of women having multiple sex partners is repugnant to men.  Why this injustice?  Muslims claim that Islam treats men and women equally, but then why doesn’t it afford women similar sexual freedom to that of men? 

If the difference in the number of females is the reason Muslims support polygyny then they should give up this practice and allow a woman to marry more than one man, since, in many Muslim countries, males outnumber females. Almost all religions had illogical beliefs and practices, but, at some point in time, they were all reformed, giving way to modern civilization.  The problem with Islam is that Muslims don’t want to change or have been indoctrinated not to.  Even educated Muslims try to defend Islamic practices which are incompatible with modern society.  Instead of giving up the impractical system of Shar’ia law, Muslims want to promote it and spread it throughout the world even after the disastrous effects it has had on Islamic states.  Even in Western and non-Muslim countries they are trying to have Shar’ia implemented.  Muslims are trying, whether intentionally or inadvertently, to push civilization back into the middle ages where many Islamic countries seem suspended.

Dr. Zakir Naik, perhaps unsurprisingly, supports the death penalty for apostates of Islam.  On one hand he claims that Muslims are logical and on the other hand he supports such a barbaric law for such a miniscule crime, and what many ex-Muslims consider an awakening.  Muslims claim that the Koran says there is no compulsion in religion but then why does the Koran prescribe the death penalty for apostates?  Obviously something is wrong.  Only those willing to see the truth will see it.  Those harebrained fanatics, who are blinded by their religion, will always reason according to the Islamic rules unless we change this ideology from the inside or destroy it completely.   

Sources:

A. http://www.irf.net/irf/faqonislam/index.htm

1. http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/index.htm

2. http://www.newadvent.org/bible/

3. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

4. http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/SameSexCouplesandGLBpopACS.pdf

5. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108570.html

6. http://www.censusscope.org/us/chart_age.html

7. http://www.adherents.com/adh_dem.html  

I will, as best I can, offer the dispassionate truth behind misconceptions since it seems the world is easily sold on lies when truth is the only commodity that is truely worth anything.  My favorite, and most highly controversial, is religion and faith and its role in our civilization (or lack thereof).  I encourage feedback along logical lines and as much debate as can be humanly spurned on.  Thanks for visiting!