Delhi (AsiaNews) A call by the Prime Minister on local governments to respect minorities "is timely and reassuring to all citizens especially minorities", said Fr Babu Joseph.
The spokesman for the India Catholic Bishops' Conference and director of its media office was speaking to AsiaNews about comments made by Manmohan Singh during a meeting of Chief Ministers on 5 September.
The politician, addressing a meeting of Chief Ministers of individual states making up the Indian Union, warned them of the "errors of radicalism and of blaming the entire Muslim community for the evils of terrorism: this is wrong and could damage the country's peace policies."
"A policy is urgently needed to protect innocent people and to ensure that a few individual acts do not result in tarnishing the image of the entire community," he said. "Instead of a clash of civilizations, we need the idea of confluence of civilizations and this goes for all minorities."
Fr Joseph said: "The prime minister's call to identify criminal elements in society and to initiate corrective measures against them alone, without blaming an entire community, is a welcome step in an atmosphere where lawless elements seem to enjoy undeserved patronage from some quarters."
"A crime is a crime and it should be treated as such without reference to political, ethnic or religious elements."
John Dayal, chairman of the All India Catholic Union, said he was "happy" about Singh's intervention. He told AsiaNews: "I think the prime minister has done something very wise. One cannot accuse all Muslims of Islamic terrorism.
We oppose terrorism, in the world and in India, whatever the provocation, but we are not against Muslims."
He added: "The fight against terror must be fought bravely and with unity and without sinking to levels of inhumanity or violating human rights. But there must be no racial profiling and no ethnic stereotyping. The state administration, its leaders and their police forces would do well to remember this."
