• And the decline of Muslims that begins in 1857, then in some ways is completed in 1947, when the elite leave to go to Pakistan.

I was reading one of your essays after 9/11. You talk about an inscription from Jesus at Buland Darwaza at Fatehpur Sikri and then you say “The Islam I love seems to be in danger.” The inscription on Buland Darwaza is worth pondering on because this again is one of the great Muslim entrances. An entrance to a mosque, a fantastic monument of Islamic architecture and yet it quotes Jesus: “The world is like a bridge. Cross over it but do not build a house upon it.” There has always been this tradition in Islam of quoting sayings of Jesus and Jesus has been revered as a prophet. I think the relationship between Christianity and Islam is like a half-empty glass of wine. Do you look at it as half-empty or half-full?

• Well, that’s more complicated because we have lived together also for a long time.

But you lived sometimes in bloodshed and sometimes in harmony.

• And sometimes in both.

This is true. See Akbar is also the most spectacular example of a Muslim ruler who is pluralistic, liberal, looks to all religions.

• I found it more interesting because people have to figure it out that Islam is not all Taliban.

Well, there are many Islams.

• And the way to understand Islam is not just through the car bomb or the human bomb. It’s more complex.

... contd.