Indian groups reject Al Qaeda
Major Indian Muslim groups reject Al Qaeda’s efforts to set up a chapter on the subcontinent after al-Zawahri announces that Qaedat al-Jihad fi’shibhi al-qarrat al-Hindiya, or Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), will fight for Islamic law in Gujarat, Assam and Kashmir. All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat president Zafarul-Islam Khan:
We, the Indian Muslims totally reject the al-Qaida chief’s offer to help us and consider it a disservice to the cause of Muslims in the subcontinent. We do not want any meddling in our affairs by a foreign terrorist outfit
All-India Muslim Personal Law Board member Maulana Farangi Mahli:
Al-Qaida leadership believes that they will be able to rope in the disaffected Muslim young men from some Indian pockets and they will drive its operation in India. The outfit made similar attempt in Kashmir some years ago when it failed to attract Kashmiri Muslim youth.
Chennai-based Muslim community leader Professor M. H. Jawahirulla:
Indian Muslims have long faced the aggression from right wing Hindu extremists in the Hindu majority society. Al-Qaida’s call to Islamize India will only bring further miseries to minority Muslims and it has no room in a pluralistic or multi-religious society of India. There are secular-minded parties and organizations in India standing in support of Indian Muslims.