There is another image of Islam that Muslims of India are more loyal to Pakistan, often seen an enemy country, which is painful for Muslim youths and is a source of prejudice among Hindus. This obviously breads suspicion and occasional conflicts between the two communities – Muslims and Hindus (put more appropriately non-Muslims). Islam is also associated with world terrorism, specially directed against the West (US and Europe), and India. Finally, there is also a secular view which accepts that Muslim population in India shows certain unique and malfunctioning characteristic but this is because they are lagging much behind others in socio-economic development; there is a need to spread education among Muslims and bring them into the mainstream of development.
Expediency demands that both Hindus and Muslims must join together to fight the stigmas and adverse images against Muslims and other minorities. From the hostile images of Islam the entire country suffers. Both the communities suffer in some or the other way. Although in the final analysis all the differences among humans will have to be fought in the humanistic framework only but to begin with, religious tolerance, equal respect for all religions and lack of discrimination on the basis of religion need to strengthened as the socio-political values.
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