Obama delivers religious twist |
US President Barack Obama on February 4 invoked India`s example to make a plea for religious freedom and how faith leads people to do good and what`s right. Yet, in Obama`s remarks also cautioned that just like in India faith also can be twisted to be used as a weapon. In a 25-minute address to the National Prayer Breakfast, Obama who last month visited India with his wife Michelle called India `an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity`. In the same breath, he said it was also `a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs`. Obama said there were `acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation`. The meeting was attended by several international leaders including the Dalai Lama. Obama also referred to the inhuman violence of terrorist killing children at a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris. Earlier in the week, a senior aide of Obama had said that Obama`s last speech in New Delhi referring to the need for religious tolerance in India had been misconstrued by some commentators as a kind of a parting shot. If looked at in entirety, it`s really about inclusivity, said Phil Reiner, White House`s senior director for South Asian Affairs.
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