In a joint statement issued on 19 June Muslim leaders in India condemned, most forcefully and unreservedly, the Israeli President’s suggestion to the Indian government to disregard the Indian Muslim community in developing and strengthening relations with the Zionist state.
The statement says: “First of all, this is an unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign and free state. Moreover, it is a blatant disregard of the democratic principles which take public opinion into consideration while formulating national and international policies. Tiny but highly arrogant Israel should realize that it is committing a mockery of democratic principles by suggesting policies to a country which is 200 times its population. Even the Indian Muslim community Israel wants to be disregarded is 30 times bigger than Israel’s Jewish population.
“We advise Israel to make peace with its neighbours, give Palestinians their inalienable rights, return the occupied lands and stop its criminal siege of Gaza Strip and equally illegal settlements in the West Bank. Israel should stop day-dreaming that it can continue to overlord the Middle East thinking that it can forever rely on the blind American support. Middle East’s sand is shifting fast and even Israel’s American allies are now saying that a decade from now Israel may not exist.
“We advise the Israeli President to advise the Jewish settlers in occupied Palestine to return to their original homelands while those remaining in Palestine will have to live as loyal citizens of a free and democratic Palestine.
“We also advise the Israeli President to stop thinking about India where a vast majority of people of all communities know the reality of Israel and how it was built by violence and deceit on stolen land with blind European and American support. Here in India, we know that Israel is the only remaining apartheid regime in the world, which is destined to disappear from the map of the world sooner or later like the erstwhile apartheid regime in South Africa.”
The signatories to the statement include Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan, President, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat; MujtabaFarooq, President, Welfare Party of India; Muhammad Ahmad, Political Secretary, Jamaat-e Islami Hind; Maulana Abdul HameedNomani, National Secretary, JamiatUlam-e Hind; Maulana Abdul WahabKhilji, President, Islahi Movement of India; Dr Syed QasimRasoolIlyas, Member, Working Committee, Muslim Personal Law Board; Dr TaslimRahmani, President, Muslim Political Council of India; Prof. M.H. Jawahirullah, MLA, ManithaneyaMakkalKatchi, Chennai; Maulana Ataur Rahman Qasmi, Chairman, Shah Waliullah Institute and Lateef Mohammad Khan, Gen Secretary, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee, Hyderabad.