March 15, 2004 ☼ Foreign Affairs

Zafar-ul-Islam Khan makes a very good point in this article when he says that India’s Muslim community have something to show the world. What he says is something similar to Friedman’s Infosys vs Al Qaeda (stretched) argument. Unfortunately the dead wood of the Islamic world, as represented by the OIC, does not want to listen to India’s Muslims as it poses disturbing questions to its largely undemocratic status quo.

Despite Indian home minister Advani’s unfounded claims about “Islamic terrorism” in our own country, Indian Muslims were mature and wise enough not to be lured or provoked into terrorism. Shameful events like the martyrdom of Babri mosque and pogroms in Gujarat did influence some angry Muslim youth but this was so rare that even foreign observers like America’s Mr Haas have confirmed that there was no terrorist trend among Indian Muslims.

We have a clear example to offer: the father of the Indian nuclear bomb is president of India today while the father of the Pakistani bomb is discredited and disowned by his own masters. World’s largest Muslim minority, which is bigger than the population of Pakistan, has a lesson for all Muslim minorities: shun the suicidal path of violence, adjust with your native societies, learn to live as loyal minorities and try to reach high positions through hard work and sincere service to your home countries and the humanity at large. This will be a great service to Islam which teaches us that “love of homelands is part of faith” as the Prophet, peace be upon him, had said.[Outlook Magazine]

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