Interfaith Dialogue Promotes Proximity

must ignore the thorns. Without ignoring the thorns, you cannot find something as precious as a flower in this world. We should live our social lives based on this principle. We reached Beed on December 18. Countless people participated in the Shanti Yatra there. Finally, when the meeting took place, so many people gathered that people were visible far and wide. I also gave a detailed speech along with others. After the speech, many people had an extraordinary impression of my speech. A local Hindu journalist, Rajendraman, told me he was sitting near the stage, and shared, “The Collector, Mr. Sanjay Kumar Sharma, was sitting nearby. He was listening to your speech very attentively and was positively affected by it.” Then, he said that he saw tears in Mr. Sharma’s eyes while listening to my speech. After completing the Shanti Yatra program in Ahmedpur, I met a Hindu leader, Mr. Kedar. He said that after December 6, some incidents occurred in the city. A temple was also demolished. After that, Hindus and Muslims gathered there. Everyone condemned this act and decided to rebuild the temple together. Therefore, people from both communities rebuilt the temple with their own hands. No government aid was accepted. During this journey, I felt that my Hindu companions preferred to hear about Islam with interest. Whenever I wanted to say something in general without reference to Islam, they requested me to tell them about Islam. We want to hear about Islam from an Islamic scholar.