no indian moslem in al qaeda - Narayanan

No Indian Muslim in al Qaeda: Narayanan
Sunday, 29 July , 2007, 11:34

New Delhi: No Indian Muslim is involved in al Qaeda and the terrorist outfit will not succeed in its designs as Muslims in India are better integrated with the rest of the country than those living in Britain, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan has said.

"Al Qaeda is looking for more and more recruits across the globe. They would like to punch a hole as far as the Indian Muslim community is concerned," Narayanan told CNN-IBN news channel in an interview telecast on Sunday while alluding to the alleged involvement of Kafeel Ahmed, an Indian doctor, in the foiled UK terror plot last month.

"They see this as a setback or failure as far as the Indian Muslim community is concerned. And we are concerned. We are all the time on the lookout for al Qaeda movements," he said.

"I think this is being overblown tremendously. Kafeel Ahmed is a young man who was inveigled. It's obvious that the London and Glasgow bombings were botched attempts. Somebody has been instigated on a short term (basis)," he said while trying to dispel the impression that the Indian Muslim community is getting roped in global jihad by al Qaeda.

He also cautioned against using the term 'Indian Muslims' and stressed that the "Indian Muslim is far better integrated than the immigrant Muslim in the UK or elsewhere.

"You can always find a few bad men rather than talking about them as Indian Muslims."

When asked what his worst fear was, Narayanan said it was the possibility of a collapse in communal harmony.

"My worst fear is that our USP, our multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious society, an inclusive society, may get disturbed if more and more incidents of this kind take place and if people talk of the Indian Muslim being behind it," he said.

"It may disturb what I think is a very comfortable relationship the minorities in India have with the rest of the country," he stressed.