Days Ahead of US Visit, Modi Strikes Right Chord; Says Indian Muslims Will 'Die for Country'

Damning the al-Qaeda's declaration of purportedly infusing hatred in the hearts of Indian Muslims against India and the formation of its new terror wing in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Muslims in his country are patriotic and will never dance to anyone's tunes.

"If anyone thinks Indian Muslims will dance to their tunes, they (al-Qaeda) are delusional. Indian Muslims will live for India, they will die for India -- they will not want anything bad for India," Modi said while speaking to CNN, a week before his visit to the United States.

This comes just days ahead of Modi's scheduled visit to the United States and will help the two powerful leaders -- US President Barak Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- up their ante against the terror organisations. Modi says he has high hopes from his visit to the country.

The terror outfit had in September released a video, in which al-Qaeda leader Ayman-al-Zawahiri declared to wage jihad in South Asia. He said he would form a new al-Qaeda wing in India to rescue Muslims from the atrocities of India, referring specifically to the states of Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir.

A US counter-terror expert, who had warned India to take Zawahiri's threat seriously, had purported that the video portrayed Modi as an enemy of Islam.

When asked why India, with 170 million Muslim populations, has no or just a handful of members in al-Qaeda, which boasts of members from other Muslim-dominated nations such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, Modi said the fight waged by al-Qaeda was not communal or against one nation, it was against humanity.

"The question is whether or not humanity should be defended in the world. Whether or not believers in humanity should unite. This is a crisis against humanity, not a crisis against one country or one race. So we have to frame this as a fight between humanity and inhumanity, nothing else," he said.

Modi, who is scheduled to visit the United States later in the month, said he has high hopes from his visit to the country, which, he said, shared many historic and cultural similarities with India.