Govt to organise sufi meet to invoke moderate ideology

NEW DELHI: The Modi government, as part of its de-radicalisation initiatives, will organise a Sufi conclave comprising regional scholars to invoke moderate ideology in the run up to the Heart of Asia Conference on Afghanistan, to be held in Amritsar in early December.

Junior Minister for External Affairs MJ Akbar made the announcement on the conclave at a Brussels conference on Afghanistan. Referring to the shared Sufi heritage of India-Afghanistan-Pakistan, Akbar said: “This harmony of outlook and philosophy led to the unique humanitarian vision of Sufi Islam, which still connects the most revered Sufi shrines at Ajmer in my country with Mazar and Chisht-e-Sharif in Afghanistan and Mashhad in Iran. It is because of this organic link that the poetry of Bedil and Rumi is as revered in India as it is in Afghanistan or Iran.”

Amid the rise of radical forces in North Africa and West Asia, and growing threats from terror groups in the Af-Pak region, India wants to promote a different narrative. This will be the second such Sufi conclave that the Modi government will be organising within a year.

Last March, a global Sufi conference was organised by the government, with the Prime Minister inaugurating the event.

Rejecting terrorism, Modi in his address had hailed Islam as a religion of peace, citing the Koran and also paying rich tributes to the eclecticism of the Sufi tradition.

Modi had said: “When we think of the 99 names of Allah, none stand for force and violence, and that the first two names denote compassionate and merciful. Allah is Rahman and Raheem.”