I fully endorse Dr. Shamsul Islam's viewpoint that the "politics of treating Muslims as a monolithic whole is terribly wrong, miscalculated, and not based on facts." He is so right in pointing out that "Gandhiji was shot dead by a Brahmin" (in fact a Maharashtrian Brahmin, to be precise). But did it mean that we should have assaulted all Maharshtrian Brahmins following Gandhiji's assasination? Of course NOT! Indeed, good sense prevailed and no body since then has even thought of such an unpatriotic, illogical and dangerous idea. Yet, this is precisely what both the Islamic and Hindutva fundamentalist politicians try to do – blame the entire community for the violent act by one of its members and then build up a hysterical hate campaign against the whole community.

There is only one point where I don't agree with Dr. Islam's email i.e. his use of the phrase "I am sorry to write that . . . . ." at the beginning of his otherwise forthright statement. Why should he be sorry for making such a significant statement? Instead, he should be proud of writing that the "Indian Muslims should behave as normal Indian citizens and rise up to the occasion with those who are interested in safeguarding a democratic-secular India." I would say the same thing for all Indian citizens, including the Hindu citizens. There is no other way to build the India of our dreams!