NEW DELHI (Web Desk) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has praised Islam for emphasizing the importance of education.
“The Quran mentions the word ‘ilm’ 800 times. It is among the most repeated words after Allah. This is the importance of knowledge in the religion,” Modi told an audience comprising the high commissioners of Saarc countries and envoys of Muslim nations such as Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt and Indonesia at his residence during the launch of the book “Education of Muslims” by historian JS Rajput and India Islamic Culture Centre president Sirajuddin Qureshi, Times of India reported.
The PM, who broke with the capital’s tradition and did not host Iftar parties, also used the occasion to express his good wishes to the guests for the month of Ramzan starting in a few days.
The PM’s outreach so far has been usually limited to meeting community members and clerics. This book launch was the first such meeting where Modi hosted high commissioners of Muslim countries for an informal tea.
In his address, the PM highlighted India’s diversity as its biggest strength. “We are lucky that we live in a country where people speaking the same language and following a similar culture follow different faiths.
This understanding of different perspectives is not possible anywhere else in the world,” he said. “Understanding each other is the meeting point between various communities,” he added.
He recalled a Muslim education seminar in Ahmedabad in 1894 and elaborated that a Hindu hosted it and one of the resolutions about educating Muslim girls which was unanimously adopted was also moved by a Hindu to emphasize how knowledge sharing has been happening in India for years.
