My response was frank. “Don’t you think the BJP’s concern is justified,” I asked my friend, “in view of all that has been happening in India, Pakistan and the rest of our neighbourhood?” He replied, “Muslims, however, think that the BJP wants to target them in the name of security.” His reply prompted me to passionately explain the need for an uncompromising stand on the twin threats to India’s internal security: terrorism and Naxalism.

I also added: “I agree that no religious community should be tarred with the brush of terrorism. I condemn those Hindus who, explicitly or implicitly, hold Islam to be a religion of terror. Nevertheless, isn’t it equally wrong to malign a tough stand against terrorism as being anti-Islam and anti-Muslim?”

I recall this conversation in light of the widely reported declaration adopted at an All India Anti-Terrorism Conference organised by the Islamic Madrassas Association on 25th February, under the aegis of Darul Uloom, Deoband. The conference, representing a wide spectrum of Muslim religious thought, declared terrorism to be un-Islamic. Stating that “Islam has taught its followers to treat all mankind with equality, mercy, tolerance, justice,” it condemned “all kinds of violence and terrorism in the strongest possible terms.” It also appealed to Muslims “not be employed as tools of evil by anti-Islamic or anti-national forces.” Darul Uloom Deoband, established in 1866, is one of the most influential seminaries in the Islamic world. Many of the ulemas associated with it had played a heroic role in the anti-British struggle, especially in the 1857 War of Independence. Some of them had also opposed India’s partition in 1947 on the basis of the Muslim League’s Two-Nation theory.

Therefore, Deoband’s denunciation of terrorism deserves to be widely welcomed. Nevertheless, in the interest of a free, frank and all-sided debate, I have to point out certain features of the Deoband declaration which dilute its main anti-terror message. For example, its censure of the Congress-led UPA government for targeting innocent Muslims is far more elaborate and overt than its condemnation of terrorism in the name of Islam. Look at the exaggeration, bordering on distortion, in the declaration: “The situation has worsened so far that every Indian Muslim, especially those associated with madrassas, who are innocent with good record of characters, are always gripped by the fear that they might be trapped by the administrative machinery anytime. Today countless number of innocent Muslims are spending their lives behind the bars.”

It would have been helpful if the conference had equally vehemently exhorted that no madrassa in India should harbour a single extremist preacher giving sermons of intolerance towards other faiths or, for that matter, other Muslim sects. Similarly, its anti-terrorism call would have acquired greater credibility if it had explicitly condemned Al-Qaeda, called upon Pakistan not to export terrorism, through the ISI and several terrorist bodies operating from its soil, and simultaneously called upon the Muslim community to be vigilant about their recruits operating from our own soil. After all, terrorist groups cannot act or survive without local help. Whether the government is that of the Congress or the BJP, security forces have to do their jobs diligently — nab suspects, conduct investigation and bring culprits to justice.

True, innocent persons must not be ill-treated. But can the anti-terrorism drive of the Indian state, irrespective of which party is in power, be effective if roadblocks are placed at every step along this path? Don’t we know how TADA and POTA were dubbed anti-Muslim? Isn’t it a fact that the police are facing difficulties in investigating the cases pertaining to the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai trains and those near mosques in Malegaon and Hyderabad? A reliable source said to me last week that a senior Congress leader in Karnataka told the state police chief to ‘go slow’ in investigating the recently revealed cases about SIMI’s network of pro-terror elements in colleges and IT companies. The Deoband conference’s declaration would have been hailed more enthusiastically if it had called for exemplary punishment, as already pronounced by the Supreme Court, to those who plotted the attack on Parliament, the most important symbol of the Indian state.

Despite these comments, I welcome Darul Uloom’s recent initiative. Let it be followed up with similar widely publicised meets and declarations in every city and town. And let there also be a debate between the conference’s participants and all mainstream political parties, including the BJP, aimed at removing mutual misconceptions and strengthening the nation’s fight against terrorism.