Goa: Mahmood Madani, general secretary of one of India’s biggest Muslim organisations, the Jamiat Ulema Hind, said Indian Muslims were the best-placed lot when you look around the world while speaking at the annual India Foundation Conclave.
“Indian Muslims are in the best condition. I am not talking in terms of material gains but in terms of freedom to live the way they want to. They are living according to their choice,” he said.
Madani also claimed India has the largest Muslim population in the world. “As a Muslim I can say with full confidence that the world’s largest Muslim population is in India. Some people would like to contest this claim saying it is Indonesia but I am confident about what I am saying,” he said.
Madani took a dig on those who blame all the ills on the mullah or the cleric by saying that the idea of two nation theory didn't come from a mullah. “Who got the idea if Pakistan and two nation theory? Certainly not a mullah,” he said.
The Jamiat leader also emphasized that Islam came to India through peace and through the sword. “In India Islam came with Sufism and not emperors. Islam is not for ruling or establishing sarkar. It has come to correct our own ways of life. It didn't come with Akbar and Babur but with Chisti and Aulia."
“I was told Muslims are a problem. But is the presence of Muslims in India a problem or an asset? Who will decide? No one else but Muslims will decide if they are a liability or an asset to the country,” he said.
Dissent, democracy and nationalism are among the main topics discussed threadbare at a three-day conclave being held in Goa by the India Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank that counts four Union ministers among its board of directors.
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