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Observing that democracy in India has helped wean away Muslims from terrorism, a top United States official on Wednesday asked Muslims around the world to help counter the "distorted" vision of Islam advanced by terrorists, saying a struggle was on for the 'soul of Islam.'
"We must counter the grim totalitarian vision of the terrorists with the positive vision of freedom and democracy," President George W Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
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He cited India as an example of how democracy can defeat the 'jehadi appeal' to Muslims.
"Democracy does seem to weaken the appeal of the terrorist extremists. As our Indian friends are quick to point out, India has the second largest Muslim population in the world. Yet, thus far Muslims from India have not been discovered participating in the global jehad in either Afghanistan or Iraq," he said.
The war on terror has been both a battle of arms and ideas, Hadley said.
"In this battle of ideas we must encourage Islamic moderates to dispute the distorted vision of Islam advanced by the terrorists. A struggle is underway for the soul of Islam -- an ideological struggle for the support and loyalty of the Muslim world. Winning this struggle will require a direct challenge to the extremist voices within Islam....it is Muslim voices from around the world that must take up this challenge," he added.