{"id":309908,"date":"2019-03-01T08:38:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T08:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=309908"},"modified":"2019-03-01T08:42:26","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T08:42:26","slug":"sushma-swaraj-addresses-inaugural-session-of-oic-meet-in-abu-dhabi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/sushma-swaraj-addresses-inaugural-session-of-oic-meet-in-abu-dhabi\/","title":{"rendered":"Sushma Swaraj addresses inaugural session of OIC meet in Abu Dhabi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday addressed inaugural session as \u2018Guest of Honour\u2019 at council of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). It is for the first time that India has been invited to an OIC meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Swaraj in her speech said, \u201cI stand here as a representative of a land, that has been for ages a fountain of knowledge, a beacon of peace, a source of faiths and traditions and home to religions from the world and now one of the major economies of the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI carry the greetings of 1.3 billion Indians, including more than 185 million Muslim brothers and sisters. Our Muslims brothers and sisters are a microcosm of the diversity of India itself,\u201d Swaraj said.<\/span><\/p>\n

She further said that terrorism is destroying lives, destabilizing regions and putting the world at great peril. Terror reach is growing and the toll it is taking is increasing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTerrorism in each case is driven by distortion of religion. Fight against terror is not a confrontation against any religion. Just as Islam means peace, none of the 99 names of Allah mean violence. Similarly, every religion stands for peace, compassion and brotherhood,\u201d she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said, \u201cterrorism and extremism bear different names and labels. It uses diverse causes. But in each case, it is driven by distortion of religion and a misguided belief in its power to succeed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past four years, few relationships have seen as much engagement, or has been so transformed, as India\u2019s relationship with UAE and, indeed, with the entire Gulf and West Asia Region. In a sense, it is a return of history,\u201d Swaraj said.<\/span><\/p>\n

India shares much with you. \u201cMany of us have experienced the dark days of colonialism. Many of us saw, the light of freedom and the bright ray of hope at the same time. We have stood together in solidarity, in our quest for justice and dignity,\u201d she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a clash of civilisations or cultures, but a contest of ideas and ideals. As PM Narendra Modi has often said, it is a struggle between the values of humanism and the forces of inhumanity,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Swaraj concluded her address at the Inaugural and said she has come from the land of Mahatma Gandhi, where every prayer ends with the call for Shanti or Peace for all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Friday said that he will not attend a meeting of the OIC in Abu Dhabi due to his Indian counterpart’s presence at the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have decided not to attend Council of Foreign Ministers as a matter of principle for having extended invitation as a Guest of Honour to Sushma Swaraj,\u201d Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.<\/span><\/p>\n

India has been invited for the very first time to attend the Foreign Ministers’ conclave in Abu Dhabi, where External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is the “guest of honour”.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday addressed inaugural session as \u2018Guest of Honour\u2019 at council of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). It is for the first time that India has been invited to an OIC meeting. Swaraj in her speech said, \u201cI stand here as a representative of a land, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":309909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[3606,10964,892],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309908"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309912,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309908\/revisions\/309912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/309909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}