indian muslims will live and die for india says modi in his first interview since assuming office

New Delhi: Indian Muslims will live and die for India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said, maintaining that they will not dance to the tunes of terror outfit Al Qaeda.

"My understanding is that they are doing injustice towards the Muslims of our country. If anyone thinks Indian Muslims will dance to their tune, they are delusional.

"Indian Muslims will live for India, they will die for India - they will not want anything bad for India," he told CNN in a rare media interview.

He was asked about the head of Al Qaeda issuing a video and an appeal trying to create an Al Qaeda in India- SouthAsia saying he wants to free Muslims from the "oppression" they face in Kashmir and Gujarat.

He was also put a question about the remarkable phenomenon that out of the 170 million Muslims in India, there seemed to be no or very few members of Al Qaeda even though it is in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "What is it that has made this community not as susceptible?"

Modi answered that first he was not the authority for doing a psychological and religious analysis on this.

"But the question is whether or not humanity should be defended in the world. Whether or not believers in humanity should unite. This is a crisis against humanity, not a crisis against one country or one race. So we have to frame this as a fight between humanity and inhumanity, nothing else," he said.

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