By TCN News,
New Delhi: Syrian Ambassador Riyad Kamel Abbas faced hostile participants at a seminar in Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi following his controversial statement which claimed Indian jihadists are fighting in Syria along with Al Qaida.
In his statement he even dared India government to decide “whether you are with terrorists or against terrorists… Now is the time to talk about fighting against terrorism.” The Syrian ambassador had come to JNU to attend a seminar on Syrian crisis along with Syrian journalist Wail Awwad who was one of the speakers in the talk.
Though ambassador’s name was not among speakers, he was asked to speak. After the talk, question-answer session started, when some students expressed their views on ambassador’s statement which according to them had hurt their sentiments as Indian Muslims.
But the seminar coordinators and some professors tried to prevent students from making anti Bashar Al Asad questions and called the speakers presentation as propaganda. But students insisted they be allowed to complete their questions and tense situation erupted between students and the speakers.
One student present in the seminar said that the ambassador politely sought to clarify his statement and he blamed the newspaper for highlighting something which was not meant. He clarified that he was not blaming Indian Muslims. Wail Awwad a veteran Syrian journalist said that India had second largest Muslim population and we were proud to say that their no single Al Qaida member.
Students siad that the clarification placated agitating students. News channel Times Now also broadcasted Syrian ambassador’s clarification after the seminar.
It is to be noted that this was third seminar on Syrian crisis in the Centre for West Asian Studies in which Syrian officials were invited to present Syrian government’s position but none from other side had been invited so far.
The Syrian envoy Riyad Kamel Abbas has said in his exclusive interview to the Indian Express on 5th September that “Indian fighters were waging Islamic jihad, along with fighters from Chechnya, Afghanistan and other countries. They are Islamic people, not Hindus, because Hindus don’t wage Islamic jihad… Why are you surprised?. There are people in India who support Muslim brotherhood’s ideology… They are very dangerous.”
The interview shocked Muslim leaders who rushed to condemn the statement and demanded Indian government to summon and take explanations on his statement.
AIMMM President Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan said that the Syrian ambassador has failed to offer any proof or names of any “Indian Muslims” who he claims are fighting in his country. Dr Khan rejected the lame excuse put forward by the ambassador that proof could not be presented to the Indian government because no Indian high level official has visited Syria recently.
Dr Khan said the Indian mission in Damascus is functioning while the Syrian embassy too is working here in New Delhi and these are the normal channels for governments to deliver and receive any information or complaint. Dr Khan said the Syrian ambassador is in New Delhi precisely for this purpose in which he has clearly failed and has, instead, misused his diplomatic office to approach a newspaper to air his unfounded allegations which were earlier, again in vague terms, parroted by a visiting Syrian minister last March.