Analysis of Zakir Naik's persuasion discourse

Abstract

The present article examines how Dr.Zakir Naik, the celebrated Islamic preacher, uses language to persuade the audience in his popular speeches. The paper tests the persuasive approaches proposed in Connor and Lauer’s model by segmenting a representative sample of Dr. Zakir Naik’s You Tube video scripts into discourse units based on the three fundamental resources of persuasive appeals: Rationality, Credibility, and Affection.For the implementation of appeals, the types of convincing approaches were identified and analysed. Using manual transcription and NVivo 12 for codification and analysis, the findings reveal that logical strategies have been used predominantly in Zakir Naik’s speeches. Amongst the Rational appeals, using authoritative sources has been mostly utilized. The results highlight that varied persuasion tactics show their functions in constructing the convincing power of his arguments.