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ug. 18, p. 10

People always think that India, the second-most populous nation on this planet, is full of Hindus. But that’s not true. Hindus constitute 80.5 percent of India’s total population of 1.21 billion people. The rest comprise Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims and Sikhs. Many people outside India do not know much about India’s Muslims.

Several Indonesian eyebrows were raised when for the first time, Indonesians were invited to a breaking the fast event by Indian Ambassador to Indonesia Gurjit Singh.

“India has the world’s second-largest Muslim population after Indonesia,” Ambassador Singh said at the event, which was held recently at his residence.

Said Aqil Siradj, chairman of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), and 200 other public figures, senior journalists, officials and intellectuals attended the event.

Your comments:

I visited India in 2011 and from my perspective it is a place where Muslims are able to live peacefully except in areas like Kashmir. Compared to false accusations and stigma in the United States, India is a peaceful place to live.

Ahmed Lats

Maybe Mr. Gurjit Singh should live in Kashmir or Gujrat or the northeastern Indian states for a while and see how “equally” the Muslims are being treated there.

The truth is that the majority of Muslims are seen as third-class citizens and they form a sizeable section of the under-class of society. The government in Delhi has done little to provide them with opportunities to empower themselves socially or economically.

There is also an ever-looming threat from far-right Hindu extremism that has targeted Muslims in the past to further the political agenda of those with whom they are allied.

Zaki Hammaad

India is the world biggest democracy. If there is any wrongdoing against Muslims by Hindus, it must be a local issue or small in scope. But terrorism carried out by terrorist immigrants from Pakistan is often very devastating.

India has better intelligence and security services than Pakistan to prevent terror attacks. The efforts from both sides to achieve peace have been disrupted several times by what happened in Kashmir, where Muslims demand detachment from India.

However, with 177 million Muslims, India is home to more Muslims than Pakistan.

For Indonesia, where Muslims form the majority, the problem is always the Muslims who discriminate against the minorities.

I believe it is time to get fanatics more knowledge about humanity and to promote understanding and the respect for other people. The same goes for Christians who still harbor misunderstandings.

But in general, Indonesian Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists live together as civilized human beings.

Widya Utama