RSS book on 21st-century outlook cites connection between 'Islamic Jihad' and 'Terrorism'

By Pragya Kaushika
New Delhi [India], Sep 20 (ANI): The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) roadmap for 21st century, a much-awaited book scheduled to be released by RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat on October 1, has indicated towards a connection between 'Islamic jihad' and terrorism.
"This terrorism is prefixed with the concept of Islamic jihad because innocents were massacred in the name of Jihad. Let's not say it in a different way. Denying it would be estranging the truth", read a comment made in the context of 1993 Mumbai terrorist attack and the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Centre on the United States.
The author, Sunil Ambekar, national organising secretary of ABVP, the students' wing of RSS, makes these comments in the context of remarks made by Carrier Gracie of BBC News in March 2017 where she says that Islamic terrorism is threatening the entire world.
On September 2, ANI was first to report that a senior RSS functionary has penned a book on RSS's stand on contemporary and 21st-century issues which will be published through a non-affiliated publishing house.
The author in his book, however, clarifies that "Muslim majority states are definitely not a monolith. Five are declared Islamic states, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iran. There are 17 countries where Islam is the state religion. And there are many secular states too."
"We do not say that terrorism thrives in Islamic states but what we do say on the basis of irrefutable evidence is that Pakistan enables and sponsors terrorism, " Ambekar added in the chapter titled 'In the Globalised World'.
He goes on to state that grounded in Hindu thought, the RSS considers all faiths as equally true and respectable.
"In our times, there can be no peace without respect and co-existence of all religious. But zero tolerance of terrorism is the need of the hour", he added. (ANI)