Having covered the BJP and the Sangh parivar for over a decade now, I have often been confronted with the myth of the “macho Muslim”. Organisations like the VHP actually perpetuate this and I recall Giriraj Kishore telling me on the record that Muslim men prey on innocent Hindu girls because “they have had surgery [a reference to circumcision] and can give them greater pleasure”. Muslims, too, at one level, love the idea of being a great masculine race. I have heard many delight in the fact “that only we can produce fast bowlers”. Prejudices, in fact, are the source of great wit and humour, but cross a thin line and they become dangerous.