Zafar ul Islam Khan is currently Chairman of Delhi Minority Commission, author and journalist based in New Delhi. He is currently editor and publisher of The Milli Gazette fortnightly focusing on issues concerning the Muslim community, which is a second largest majority in India. He is also the founder and chairman of Charity Alliance, an organisation involved in relief and welfare work in India.
Birth and Education
Khan was born in Badhariya Azamgarh, India, in March 1948. He is the son of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, a Muslim thinker who runs the Al Risala/Islamic Center in New Delhi. His primary education was at Madrasa-tul-Islah, a madrasah in Azamgarh, and Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow. Later he studied at Al-Azhar and Cairo University during 1966–73. He obtained his PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Manchester in 1987. In the 1970s he worked with the Libyan Foreign Ministry as translator-editor. In the 1980s he was with the London-based The Muslim Institute, running their MuslimMedia newsservice and other publications. The Muslim Institute went on to form the Muslim Parliament, an informal body of leading British Muslims. He is author and translator of over 50 books in Arabic, English and Urdu including "Hijrah in Islam" and Palestine Documents. He has contributed eight articles to the Encyclopaedia of Islam on Indo-Muslim themes. He is a regular commentator on Islamic and South Asian issues on radio and TV channels, including Al Jazeera and BBC Arabic and his writings appear in Arabic newspapers and magazines. In December 2007, he was elected for a two-year term as President of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, the umbrella body of Muslim organisations in India. He has also been elected as the President of AIMMM for 2012 and re-elected for a further two-year term. In an interview to rediff.com he claimed there is "no tangible proof of Muslims' involvement in terrorism" in India. In July 2017, he was appointed as Chairman for a three-year term of Delhi Minorities Commission, a quasi-judicial body to take care of the welfare and interests of the designated minorities in the Indian capital region.
Sedition Case
On 28 April 2020, Khan had posted on Facebook thanking Kuwait for officially taking note anti-Muslim violence in North East Delhi Riots. He also said that the Indian Muslims have not yet chosen to tell Arabs and the "Muslims world" about "hate campaigns, lynching and riots" against them in India. Had they done so, Indian bigots would have been facing an "avalanche", he said in the post. Khan had also reportedly commented, “Mind you, bigots, Indian Muslims have opted until now not to complain to the Arab and Muslim world about your hate campaigns and lynchings and riots. The day they are pushed to do that, bigots will face an avalanche.” Khan also said, among many other Indian Muslims scholars of world repute, Zakir Naik is a “respected” household name in the Arab and Muslim world. Zakir Naik is declared a fugitive in India. On 1 May, Zafarul Islam Khan has been charged with sedition for making a “provocative” comment on social media early this week “to cause disharmony and create rift in the society”. Two petitions filed in the Delhi High Court against him have been disposed on the their first day of hearing, 5th May 2020 and 11th May 2020 respectively.
