Arif regrets lack of support for fighting fundamentalist forces

New Delhi, Feb 25 (UNI) Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Arif Mohammad Khan today decried the tendency to equate Muslims with terrorists and regretted Indian society was not lending enough support to leaders fighting fundamentalist forces.

Presiding over a seminar on the Sachar Committee Report organised by the India First Foundation, Mr Khan, who was dropped from the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet after he supported the Supreme Court verdict on Shah Bano case, said it was wrong to say all terrorists are from the Muslim community and pointed to terrorism in Lanka and Nepal, countries which do not have large Muslim population.

He said he was fighting the designs of the Muslim Personal Law Board for years but the society was not lending enough support to him. He said it would be difficult to continue the fight for long.

''If the society cannot support those fighting fundamentalist forces, it was another matter but they should atleast stop recognising self-appointed Muslim leaders,'' he added.

Mr Khan who moved over to the V P Singh Cabinet after he was dumped by Rajiv Gandhi said there too he was sidelined when the Prime Minister was won over by people like Syed Shahabuddin.

When the seminar wanted to move a resolution that the progressive Muslim leadership had been let down by the mainstream parties whenever they were under attack by fundamentalist forces, Mr Khan said he would not want such a resolution be passed especially when he was chairing the session.

''This (resolution) no doubt is music to my ears but I do not want such a resolution to be passed especially when I am presiding,'' he said.

The seminar however adopted a resolution criticising the Justice Sachar Committee Report as it was based on flawed premises and questionable data resulting in untenable conclusions.

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