Thanks to Hinduism, India doesn't have radical Islam: Chinese media

NEW DELHI: After China's climbdown on Doklam, the state-run media has softened its shrill tone against India. An article in Global Times appreciates Hinduism for preventing the spread of radical Islam.

"Why does it seem that Muslims in India have remained largely apart from the radicalization that has happened to Muslim groups in other parts of the world?" the article raises the question, citing the Islamist unrest in other parts of Asia: "Indian Muslims seldom have extreme organizations compared with groups in many other Asian countries. In the southern part of the Philippines, extremists backed by Islamic State have turned their occupied cities into horrible places. In southern Thailand, terror attacks staged by Muslim extremists take place almost every week."

The article attributes the absence of radical Islam in India to Hinduism. It says India breaks the 'arc of Islam' in Asia: "In Asia as a whole, Islam forms an arc that includes the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand, southern Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Central Asian countries. There are tensions at various degrees at junctions in this arc where it encounters other religions and ethnicity, but a dent exists in the Indian portion of this arc."

It says this lack of Islamic extremism in India gives it a tall standing in the world, and that's the reason why it reckons with the US, Japan, Russia and European countries when it comes to their Asia policies. "The lack of Islamic extremists in India has helped determine its role in Asia," it says.

Media rhetoric is a significant part of China's foreign policy as was seen during the Doklam conflict. Is the article in praise of Hinduism linked in any way to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China next week for the BRICS Summit?

In a June article, Global Times had blamed Hinduism for misunderstandings between China and India: "Indians attach great importance to spiritual matters while Chinese are more concerned about material matters. Such different worldviews are the source and explanation of all differences between China and India as well as the misunderstandings the two peoples harbor toward each other."