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Blackwill gets an earful from Muslim leaders

Blackwill gets an earful from Muslim leaders

Author: Shahid Faridi
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: October 11, 2001

The US ambassador to India, Mr Robert D. Blackwill, who has been lobbying Muslim leaders and organisations to tone down reaction of the community against US strikes on Afghanistan, received an earful recently about the "double-standards adopted by his country in dealing with terrorism."

Mr Blackwill had invited a large number of prominent Muslims to the US embassy in New Delhi for talks after the terror attacks in New York and Washington.

While most invitees attended the meeting, president of Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind Asad Madani rejected the invitation accusing the United States of unleashing state terrorism against the people of Afghanistan in reply to the individual terrorism resorted to by those who attacked the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.

Secretary of Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind Mahmood Madani said: "We have asked the Imams of mosques all over India to adopt resolutions against the US attack on Afghanistan to be sent to the UN."

Even those who attended Mr Blackwill's meeting, blasted the US administration for its "support to the Israeli terror against the people of Palestine."

One of the leaders, who attended the meeting, told The Asian Age that the US ambassador tried to get the support and endorsement of the Muslim community in India to the attack on Afghanistan and his country's war against terrorism.

"But the ambassador was told that there were doubts in the minds of people about the aim of US attack. We told him that the attack on Afghanistan and the announcement that attacks may also be carried out on some other countries are being seen as an attempt by the US to extend its hegemony in the world. Mr Blackwill tried to allay these fears," Maulana Obaidullah Khan Azmi, MP, told The Asian Age.  "The US ambassador was told that terrorism will not end by killing Osama bin Laden or the Taliban. But it can end if the issue of Palestine was resolved," he said.

Mr Azmi added: "We asked the US ambassador to look into the reasons for the terror attacks. I told  the ambassador that his country should try to find out the reasons that provoked the young men to launch the terror attacks on his country. I told him that the Muslims of the entire world, including from India, strongly condemned the attack on the US. Islam does not allow its followers to take recourse to terrorism to achieve their goals. Those who are resorting to terrorism in the name of Islam can have nothing to do with the religion. We also opposed the term Islamic terrorism because it is a contradiction in terms."

He said the Muslim leaders also asked the United States to join the world community in defining the word terrorism.

Meanwhile, Shahi Imam of the historic Jama Masjid in New Delhi Ahmad Bukhari has decided to hold a demonstration outside the United States embassy in Delhi on October 12 after Friday prayers.
 


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