Indian Muslims ‘sidelined’ in politics: cleric

[LahoreEstate]

NEW DELHI: The chief cleric at India’s largest mosque delivered a stinging attack against the country’s major parties on Friday, less then a week before the country’s general elections. Syed Ahmed Bukhari of New Delhi’s Jama mosque said Muslims in India were “victims of injustice” and have been “tortured and systematically sidelined by all political parties”. “A peaceful, secure and happy life is a distant dream for us,” he said in a speech ahead of Friday prayers. He accused Hindu-majority India’s main parties of being either overtly sectarian or otherwise trying to cynically woo the Muslim vote with “false promises”. “Look around and see the situation: some parties have an anti-Muslim agenda, some are trying to show sympathy towards us, but they will never be of any good to us,” he said. Muslims numbered 140 million in India, making them the largest religious minority in a country of 1.1 billion people. afp

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