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Carrying forward its advise to Muslims to earn the goodwill of Hindu majority for their safety, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Wednesday asked Muslims to reinterpret a few Islamic terms, not to play into the hands of Hindu-baiters and condemn all violence against Hindus.
Defending the controversial Bangalore resolution asking Muslims to earn the goodwill of Hindus as 'a statement of fact', its spokesman M G Vaidya, however, said the Sangh was ready 'to remove irritants' with Muslims on the lines of a similar dialogue with the Church.
"But they (Muslims) should take the initiative. Liberal Muslims like Asghar Ali Engineer, Sikander Bakht, Mushirul Hasan are sidelined today. Muslims should come forward and strengthen the hands of such leaders," he said.
"The Muslims should reinterpret and define the meaning of Kafir (infidels), Kufr (the philosophy behind the term Kafir) and Jihad (holy war against infidels).
They should not play into the hands of known Hindu-baiters like the Left parties and condemn any violence on Hindus whether in Kashmir or elsewhere.
"This would assuage the pent-up feelings of Hindus," he said.
He said the Hindus believed in plurality and diversity of faiths and the RSS only wanted the minority communities to recognise that.
"Christians should also accept that there is salvation outside the Church," he said.
"There are certain irritants and some incidents that cause irritants. We don't want people to be killed when they go for pilgrimage to Amarnath or Sabarimala (Kerala). We want Muslims to remove them (irritants) and then there will be no occasion to disrupt social harmony," the RSS spokesman said.
Vaidya said that while the RSS did not consider all Muslims to be terrorists, many terrorists happen to be Muslims and claim they are working for 'Jihad which is an Islamic cause'.
On the Bangalore resolution, he said, "Much unwarranted hype has been created in a section of the media about one sentence 'Let Muslims understand that their real safety lies in the goodwill of the majority'. What is objectionable in this? Does the safety of any minority group lie in the ill-will of the majority?" he asked.
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