Thursday, July 21 2005 21:55 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Leading Muslim Organisations in the country today (July 21, 2005) hailed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement in Washington reaffirming his "faith and confidence" in the community.

"Last night's historical statement by the Prime Minister in US reaffirming his faith and confidence in Indian Muslims has evoked overwhelming appreciation and gratification in the community all over the country", representatives of Muslim organisations said in a joint statement in New Delhi.

They said only a person of Singh's stature could make such a statement that not even one Muslim out of the 15 crore in the country was involved with any terrorist organisation like Al-Qaeda.

The signatories to the joint statement, while expressing a sense of ratification and appreciation, assured the Prime Minister that, "Under no circumstances they will allow terrorism to raise its head and under no circumstances the integrity, unity, peace and harmony of the country would be allowed to be jeopardised by any act of terrorism".

"Islam is totally against the killing of innocent people and we strongly condemn terrorism of all kinds all over the world", Kamal Faruqui, Member Muslim Personal Law Board and a signatory to the statement said.

Maulana Mohd Wali Rehmani, Secretary MPLB, Fakharuddin Mohammad, Secretary MESCO (Hyderabad), Educationist P A Inamdar (Pune), K M Arif, chairman Dream Foundation-Mumbai), Maulana Abdul Wahab Khilji, Member MPLB and former Secretary Jamat-e Ahle-Hadis (Delhi) and Maulana Asrarul Haque, Chairman Milli Talimi Foundation were among others who signed the joint statement.