Indian Muslims do not need outside help: Saudi Arabia

In a rebuff to Pakistan's efforts to seek mileage out of the Gujarat riots, Saudi Arabia has said Muslims in India cannot be considered a minority and that they could resolve their problems without outside help.

"I would hate to think of the Muslims in India as a minority, coming from a country that has less Muslims, than the Muslims of India. So these Muslims are not tattered in the wind," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said at a joint press conference with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid M Kasuri in Islamabad on Sunday.

"They (Indian Muslims) are people with substance. They are people with courage and with enough of that courage to stand for their interests by themselves and not to wait for the help of others," he said when asked about the kingdom's stand on Indian Muslims in the context of the Gujarat riots.