[NumDusthouh]

The "deviance" of Zakir Naik is the same as the "deviance" of our Salafi brothers so I think it is a strong word that he does not deserve. The fitnah, though, comes from his do-it-yourself approach, where people get the impression from him that whatever he says is completely correct and what is said by the poor mullah who only a handful of people know and is barely making by on a pittance is all wrong and baseless. Zakir Naik is amazing at debating against people of other religion but we should not give him a pass when it comes to talking about fiqh or aqeedah since sometimes what he says goes even against the Saudi Salafi stance on things, such as his opinion on the niqab (which he shares with Shaykh al-Albani ). If a lay person listens to him, they'd end up believing that the religion ends with the Qur'an and the saheeh ahadeeth, when the ulama know that it is not as simple, since the Qur'an and ahadeeth (including some weak ahadeeth which may be used for the reasons of sunnah ibadah) are just the first two sources of Islamic law, the latter two being ijma' and qiyas.