New Delhi, Apr 27 (IANS): Vice President Hamid Ansari on Tuesday said the experience of the Indian Muslim minority community living in a secular polity having a composite culture could be a model for others to emulate.

"Thinking minds should look beyond questions of identity and dignity in a defensive mode and explore how both can be furthered in a changing India and a changing world," MrAnsari said, while releasing a book "Fikr" brought out by the National Institute of Faith Leadership.

"The Indian experience of a large Muslim minority living in secular polity having a composite culture could even be a model for others to emulate," he said.

He said the book was an effort to remove widespread prejudices about Islam as a faith and Muslims as a people.

Mr Ansari said he felt "there is a crying need to look at the unexplored or inadequately explored requirements of all segments of the community particularly women, youth, and non-elite sections" who remain trapped in a vicious circle of a culturally defensive posture that hinders self advancement and well being.

"This would necessitate sustained and candid interaction with fellow citizens without a syndrome of superiority or inferiority and can be fruitful only in the actual implementation of the principles of justice, equality and fraternity," he said.