TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

The political interpretation of Islam is an innovation and the real Islam is based upon peace, compassion and tolerance. The present problem of terrorism is based on an ideology, and an ideology cannot be countered through legal action or by mere condemnation. We have to develop a counter-ideology to overcome it. UNESCO states that ‘Violence begins from the mind’, it has to, therefore, be uprooted from the mind itself. This succinctly captures the root cause of terrorism. To eliminate this root cause, we need to initiate our efforts by beginning from the right starting point—that is, re-engineering the minds of individuals by taking them away from the culture of violence and bringing them closer to the culture of peace. To understand this, let us take two parallel examples from history. The American campaign against Communist Russia and the American campaign against Saddam-led Iraq. Where the US succeeded in curbing the menace of Communist Russia, the same US failed to cope with the menace of Saddam-led Iraq. This is because America met the communist challenge at an ideological level while it opted for military action against Saddam’s Iraq. Terrorism will persist in one form or another until the ideology of violence is countered with another ideology based on peace. Ideology of Violence The ideology behind present day terrorism is that, Islam being a political system, it is the duty of all Muslims to establish Islamic rule in the world. This thinking was not prevalent during the time of Prophet Muhammad. It is a later innovation developed in the last few centuries by a handful of people. Having become widespread in the Muslim world today, it has led to the current violence. It has influenced many Muslims, especially the vulnerable youth. They have become obsessed with establishing the political rule of Islam, thinking it to be their ticket to Paradise. Failing to achieve this objective by peaceful methods, they resort to suicide bombing. The idea being that if we cannot eliminate the non-Islamic rule, then let us at least de-stabilize it and pave the way for Islamic rule. Having studied Islam through its original sources—the Quran and Hadith— it can be said with certainty that this political interpretation of Islam is an innovation and the real Islam is based upon peace, compassion and tolerance.