India needs to cherish and nurture its Muslims: Obama

New Delhi: India needs to cherish and nurture its Muslim population that is integrated and considers itself Indian, former US president Barack Obama said here Friday. Reacting over the remarks of Barac Obama about Muslims living in India, President All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and Member Parliament in a tweet said “very unfortunate that when an Indian Muslim says the same thing and more the media and political parties and their leaders including secular and communal ignore it but when an American says it ..Obama is showing mirror to all of them including Sanghis.”
‘Idea of religious tolerance in India needs to be reinforced’, the former president said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. Obama said he had emphasised the need for religious tolerance and the right to practice one’s own faith during closed door talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his last trip to India in 2015.
The 44th US president, who held office between 2009 and 2017, had made similar comments during a public interaction on the last day of his visit, which had come against the backdrop of controversy over religious conversions.
“There’s a counter narrative taking place, at all times, but it’s particularly pronounced now… in Europe, US and sometimes in India where those old tribal impulses reassert themselves under leaders who try to push back and under leaders who try to exploit them,” Obama said. Responding to an India-specific question, Obama referred to India’s “enormous Muslim population”, which is successful, integrated and thinks of itself as Indian.
That is unfortunately not always the case in some other countries, Obama added.
Referring to India, he said, “And that is something that needs to be cherished and nurtured, cultivated. It’s important to continue reinforcing it.”
Answering a question on terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Obama said, “We had no evidence that Pakistan was aware of Osama bin Laden’s presence there but that is something obviously we looked at.
Reacting over the remarks made by former United States President Barac Obama about Muslims living in India, President All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and Member Parliament, from Hyderabad Asaduddin Owaisi Friday took to Twitter and said: “very unfortunate that when an Indian Muslim says the same thing and more the media and political parties and their leaders including secular and communal ignore it but when an American says it ..Obama is showing mirror to all of them including Sanghis.”
Barack Obama while addressing a gathering at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit said that India needs to cherish and nurture its Muslim population that is integrated and considers itself Indian.