Sri Lanka is a frightening example in this respect with both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam procuring arms from various countries especially from the West. If Western industries are dependent on the arms trade, seeking global peace is going to be a tough process.
____________________
by Victor Karunairajan in Toronto
(June 24, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) A few decades ago India’s capital New Delhi became the primary focus of the roots that brought to end five centuries of global colonialism. Even the proud boast that the sun will never set on the British Empire was splintered into smithereens by the spirit and power of non-violence. Since then this force has made remarkable progress led by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, San Suu Kyi and Corazon Aquino following the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi that respect for life is the crux and thrust of non-violence and humanity’s innermost heart.
Colonialism was a scourge that brought to end some great civilizations and ruined many nations of the world just because a few countries using weapons of destruction to pursue their greed for wealth and power. In the process many countries were impoverished, large populations brutally decimated and even earth’s resources were hooked to industries that used them indiscriminately. The havoc caused by colonialism has in many ways now become the source of many political, economical and social problems in the world.
Amidst such a circumstance and the wars in Middle East and with the Western Powers in a blind blow of military might seeking control of oil rich nations and most of them of people belonging to the Islamic faith, the New Delhi initiative of the Muslims for a stand against terrorism and a pursuit for global peace is of immense historic significance.
Titled the Anti-Terrorism and Global Peace Conference, thousands of Muslim clerics and teachers from all over India participated in it and at the end of highly inspiring sessions made a declaration in the form of a religious proclamation, a fatwa, that Islam was a religion of peace. They further reiterated that one of its principal purposes was to wipe out all forms of terrorism.
What is most remarkable is the fact that such a session took place in India not in the neighbouring Muslim country of Pakistan or largely Muslim Bangladesh or even in Malaysia or Indonesia. In a country of over a billion people and multiplicity of incredible racial, religious and cultural communities speaking hundreds of languages, Muslim leaders from just about every nook and corner of India imbibed and absorbed in these diversities themselves were able to gather in their federal capital and make a common cause for global peace and express their stand against terrorism with a religious proclamation.
It appears the western press has not seized this historic event fully and given the kind of global publicity it deserved. It is with such hallmark events, we have to develop the elements that will gather momentum and create a flood of hope for global peace. A great many Muslim voices are beginning to stir up for such a cause and what has now begun in New Delhi, just like Gandhi’s determination to free India from the British, will now become a mighty call for global peace.
Imagine how thousands and thousands of young Muslim students at schools along with their peers from other religious communities will soon join this call, just like what the Swaraj Movement did, and become a united voice of a nation. Imagine the impact this would have on the neighbouring countries of India, in the Middle East, South Asia and countries of Africa and several others.
Why is the western media missing this great opportunity to set the whole world alight with a demand for global peace and bring an end to terrorism in all its forms? If President George Bush is committed to global peace, he would have used the New Delhi Declaration to make a special State of the Union message for the American people. The British Parliament could have officially hailed the occasion and given its support to the New Delhi expression for global peace. After all nearly all the British Muslim folks are from India and they would have appreciated such a gesture.
Even people who have supported Osama bin Laden or who were close to him have veered away from him a great deal. An Egyptian doctor and a former bin Laden enthusiast, Sayyid al-Sharif or Dr Fadl as he is widely known has denounced the jihad in his recently published book stating it as blemished with grave Sharia violations. Many Muslim scholars are demanding from bin Laden as to why innocent people including women, the elderly and children are being killed and for what purpose.
In the countries where such wars are taking place, the utter brutality of them and the extent of devastation caused are all becoming major factors of revulsion and repugnance and a search for ways out of them is increasingly taking shape. Terrorism is an evil force and it creates perpetual nightmare anywhere and everywhere for such is the horror it generates. A global concern that is so horrendous to imagine is that terrorism at large may have begot some major industries especially in the West that such countries fearing an economic backlash may keep fueling unrest and chaos in the poorer regions of the world.
Sri Lanka is a frightening example in this respect with both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam procuring arms from various countries especially from the West. If Western industries are dependent on the arms trade, seeking global peace is going to be a tough process.
However, the great hope is Mahatma Gandhi knew that British industries were very much dependent on the colonies for their raw materials and also as their markets. He was sure the cause was very tough and would be resisted with utmost ferocity. However, the force of non-violence won in the end. It is quite possible what began in New Delhi three weeks ago could soon become a global movement and to begin with, terrorism could be overcome at least in the developing countries.
The West suffers from the want of philosophical and genuine spiritual ideologies of peace and its power base has been built on militaristic might and bullying vulnerable and less powerful nations.
If the great ideology propounded in New Delhi becomes a global cause, then we will also see the beginning of the end of the western civilization which is an inevitable factor in the annals of human civilizations. It is now incumbent on the west to subscribe to global peace and this would demand a creation of a new economic order that will benefit the entire world and will be founded on the proper and sensible use of earth’s resources. It has to be a genuine Green Civilization encompassing the entire humanity.
Victor Karunairajan, a journalist with extensive East-West experience has had an exciting career having worked with Anglican, CSI and Catholic institutions, a Buddhist organization and a socialist government in as many as seven countries.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
____________________
by Victor Karunairajan in Toronto
(June 24, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) A few decades ago India’s capital New Delhi became the primary focus of the roots that brought to end five centuries of global colonialism. Even the proud boast that the sun will never set on the British Empire was splintered into smithereens by the spirit and power of non-violence. Since then this force has made remarkable progress led by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, San Suu Kyi and Corazon Aquino following the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi that respect for life is the crux and thrust of non-violence and humanity’s innermost heart.
Colonialism was a scourge that brought to end some great civilizations and ruined many nations of the world just because a few countries using weapons of destruction to pursue their greed for wealth and power. In the process many countries were impoverished, large populations brutally decimated and even earth’s resources were hooked to industries that used them indiscriminately. The havoc caused by colonialism has in many ways now become the source of many political, economical and social problems in the world.
Amidst such a circumstance and the wars in Middle East and with the Western Powers in a blind blow of military might seeking control of oil rich nations and most of them of people belonging to the Islamic faith, the New Delhi initiative of the Muslims for a stand against terrorism and a pursuit for global peace is of immense historic significance.
Titled the Anti-Terrorism and Global Peace Conference, thousands of Muslim clerics and teachers from all over India participated in it and at the end of highly inspiring sessions made a declaration in the form of a religious proclamation, a fatwa, that Islam was a religion of peace. They further reiterated that one of its principal purposes was to wipe out all forms of terrorism.
What is most remarkable is the fact that such a session took place in India not in the neighbouring Muslim country of Pakistan or largely Muslim Bangladesh or even in Malaysia or Indonesia. In a country of over a billion people and multiplicity of incredible racial, religious and cultural communities speaking hundreds of languages, Muslim leaders from just about every nook and corner of India imbibed and absorbed in these diversities themselves were able to gather in their federal capital and make a common cause for global peace and express their stand against terrorism with a religious proclamation.
It appears the western press has not seized this historic event fully and given the kind of global publicity it deserved. It is with such hallmark events, we have to develop the elements that will gather momentum and create a flood of hope for global peace. A great many Muslim voices are beginning to stir up for such a cause and what has now begun in New Delhi, just like Gandhi’s determination to free India from the British, will now become a mighty call for global peace.
Imagine how thousands and thousands of young Muslim students at schools along with their peers from other religious communities will soon join this call, just like what the Swaraj Movement did, and become a united voice of a nation. Imagine the impact this would have on the neighbouring countries of India, in the Middle East, South Asia and countries of Africa and several others.
Why is the western media missing this great opportunity to set the whole world alight with a demand for global peace and bring an end to terrorism in all its forms? If President George Bush is committed to global peace, he would have used the New Delhi Declaration to make a special State of the Union message for the American people. The British Parliament could have officially hailed the occasion and given its support to the New Delhi expression for global peace. After all nearly all the British Muslim folks are from India and they would have appreciated such a gesture.
Even people who have supported Osama bin Laden or who were close to him have veered away from him a great deal. An Egyptian doctor and a former bin Laden enthusiast, Sayyid al-Sharif or Dr Fadl as he is widely known has denounced the jihad in his recently published book stating it as blemished with grave Sharia violations. Many Muslim scholars are demanding from bin Laden as to why innocent people including women, the elderly and children are being killed and for what purpose.
In the countries where such wars are taking place, the utter brutality of them and the extent of devastation caused are all becoming major factors of revulsion and repugnance and a search for ways out of them is increasingly taking shape. Terrorism is an evil force and it creates perpetual nightmare anywhere and everywhere for such is the horror it generates. A global concern that is so horrendous to imagine is that terrorism at large may have begot some major industries especially in the West that such countries fearing an economic backlash may keep fueling unrest and chaos in the poorer regions of the world.
Sri Lanka is a frightening example in this respect with both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam procuring arms from various countries especially from the West. If Western industries are dependent on the arms trade, seeking global peace is going to be a tough process.
However, the great hope is Mahatma Gandhi knew that British industries were very much dependent on the colonies for their raw materials and also as their markets. He was sure the cause was very tough and would be resisted with utmost ferocity. However, the force of non-violence won in the end. It is quite possible what began in New Delhi three weeks ago could soon become a global movement and to begin with, terrorism could be overcome at least in the developing countries.
The West suffers from the want of philosophical and genuine spiritual ideologies of peace and its power base has been built on militaristic might and bullying vulnerable and less powerful nations.
If the great ideology propounded in New Delhi becomes a global cause, then we will also see the beginning of the end of the western civilization which is an inevitable factor in the annals of human civilizations. It is now incumbent on the west to subscribe to global peace and this would demand a creation of a new economic order that will benefit the entire world and will be founded on the proper and sensible use of earth’s resources. It has to be a genuine Green Civilization encompassing the entire humanity.
Victor Karunairajan, a journalist with extensive East-West experience has had an exciting career having worked with Anglican, CSI and Catholic institutions, a Buddhist organization and a socialist government in as many as seven countries.- Sri Lanka Guardian
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