Washington–Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday was greeted by enthusiastic members of the Indian community in Washington DC where he is to attend the Fourth Nuclear Security Summit.
Modi, who arrived late in the night from Brussels, shook hands and smiled and waved at the Indian community members on way to the White House to attend the security summit where world leaders from over 50 countries are expected to share their assessment of the threat from nuclear weapons and materials.
During his two-day stay in Washington, Modi is scheduled to interact with a number of world leaders, including host President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron.
Addressing the Indian diaspora in the Belgian capital, Modi said he had been speaking to leaders from various communities around the world and explaining to them how connecting terrorism to any particular religion was wrong because “no faith teaches terrorism”.
“Terrorism needs to be de-linked from any religion,” Modi said.
He told the gathering of the Indian community in Belgium how India recently hosted a Sufi conference of Muslim scholars from across the world in Delhi where liberal Islamic scholars spoke “in one voice” to denounce terrorism.
“They (the speakers) stated that terrorists who speak of Islam are un-Islamic,” Modi recalled.
He said that the world needed to strengthen such voices to prevent youth from being radicalised. “We cannot fight terrorism with bombs, guns and pistols only,” he stressed.
