After Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai writes open letter in support of Muslims
Google’s India-born CEO Sundar Pichai has come out in the open and extended his support to Muslims and all minorities throughout the world. Similarly, two days before Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg too spoke out against rising intolerance against Muslims particularly in the United States. Apparently, the speeches were made in context of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims’ entry into the US.
In a detailed post on Medium, Pichai stated, “Let’s not let fear defeat our values. We must support Muslim and other minority communities in the US and around the world.”
Recalling his early days in the US, Pichai raised questions on the hatred against Muslims, which has been a talking point in the campaign ahead of the US presidential elections. He says “It’s so disheartening to see the intolerant discourse playing out in the news these days?, ?statements that our country would be a better place without the voices, ideas and the contributions of certain groups of people, based solely on where they come from, or their religion.”
Reiterating his own experience, Google CEO said let us not let fear defeat our values. “I came to the US from India 22 years ago. I was fortunate enough to gain entry to a university here, and time after time, I saw that hard work opened other doors. I have built a career and a family and a life here. And I’ve felt as much a part of this country, as I felt growing up in India,” he posted on Medium.
“My experience is obviously not unique. It’s been said a million times that America is the “land of opportunity” – for millions of immigrants, it’s not an abstract notion, but a concrete description of what we find here. America provided access to opportunities that simply didn’t exist for many of us before we arrived,” he added.
According to Pichai, open-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance of new Americans is one of the country’s greatest strengths and most defining characteristics.
“And that is no coincidence – America, after all, was and is a country of immigrants,”
he posted.
Pichai concludes his blog by emphasising the importance of speaking out, “particularly those of us who are not under attack”.
“Everyone has the right to their views, but it’s also important that those who are less represented know that those are not the views of all,” he added.
Earlier this month, in an attempt to protect the rights of Muslims, Zuckerberg said via a Facebook post that the Muslim community should not face discrimination following attacks in Paris and elsewhere linked to extremists.
“After the Paris attacks and hate this week, I can only imagine the fear Muslims feel that they will be persecuted for the actions of others,” he wrote.
