By TCN Special Correspondent,
Ahmedabad: Welcoming the four-day visit of US President Barack Hussein Obama to India, Gujarati Muslims want him to pursue the message he gave to the world in his historic June 2009 Cairo speech.
Noted human rights activist and former physics professor at the Maharaja Sayajirao University at Vadodara J S Bandukwala, when questioned about his message to President Obama, said: “What President Obama had stated in Cairo was the correct approach”.
Photo by thehindu.com
Following the line laid down by him at Cairo, Bandukwala wants President Obama to ensure withdrawal of US and other multinational forces from Afghanistan as soon as possible to bring peace to the battered country and recognize the boundaries of the Palestine State to bring a lasting peace to the West Asian countries.
As far as India is concerned, Bandukwala advises President Obama to be careful in handling Kashmir issue.
“Muslims of India are not in favor of Kashmir leaving India because it will badly affect the future of 170 million Muslims living in India,” says Bandukwala, adding that Indian Muslims have once suffered severely during 1947 partition.
Vadodara-based social activist Zubair Gopalani wants US president to support India for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council and deal strictly with Israel indulging in terrorizing the unarmed Palestinians.
“As the US is committed to fighting global terror, it should deal sternly with Israel which came into existence through an act of terror and is also continuously following its policies of terror,” Gopalani said.
Urging US president to reverse the “war-mongering” policies of George Bush, Vadodara-based private physician Dr. Muhammed Hussain wishes President Obama would remove US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq and give a guarantee that Iran would not be attacked as was being conspired by Jewsih state of Israel.
He hoped that President Obama would strictly adhere to “principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings’’ while dealing with the Muslim world as also with the rest of the world.
He also wanted assurance from US president that he would not ban outsourcing from Indian IT companies.