I come from land of Mahatma Gandhi, where every prayer ends with the call for Shanti or Peace for all, says Sushma….
AMN / ABU DHABI
Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj today urged the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, OIC to “act together” to combat global terrorism amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pulwama terror attack on February 14.
Ms Swaraj had been invited to the core Muslims group of 57 countries as ‘Guest of Honour’.
“If we want to save humanity, we must tell the states who provide shelter and funding to terrorists, to dismantle the infrastructure of the terrorist camps and stop providing funding shelter and funding to the terror organisations based in that country,” she said, without naming Pakistan.
“Terrorism and extremism bear different names and labels. It uses diverse causes. But in each case, it is driven by distortion of religion, and a misguided belief in its power to succeed,” she added.
India has always embraced and found it easy to embrace pluralism since it is embedded in the oldest Sanskrit religious text “The Rig Veda” and I quote “एकं सद्विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति”, which means “God is One but learned men describe Him in many ways”.
She said every religion in the world stands for peace, compassion and brotherhood. Mrs Swaraj said that in the past four years, few relationships have seen as much engagement, or has been so transformed, as India’s relationship with UAE and with the entire Gulf and West Asia Region.
Mrs Swaraj said she is carrying the greetings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 1.3 billion Indians, including more than 185 million Muslim brothers and sisters.
The Minister asserted that Indian Muslim brothers and sisters are a microcosm of the diversity of India. She asserted that very few Muslims in India have fallen prey to the poisonous propaganda of radical and extremist ideologies.
This is for the first time that India was invited to an OIC meeting as a guest of honour.
It is for the first time that India has been invited to an OIC meeting as guest of honour. Pakistan, a member of the OIC, tried to get Ms Swaraj ”disinvited” from the Abu Dhabi meet following India’s air strike on a terror camp in Pakistan but its request was turned down.
Pakistan’s foreign minister has said he will skip the meeting of foreign ministers because the OIC had invited Ms Swaraj to the event.
“I will not go to the council of foreign ministers,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi told parliament, adding that lower ranking officials would attend to represent Pakistan’s interests.