TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

agitated and angry. It will impel you to avoid confrontation, and in this way you will be able to move ahead. Instead of getting stuck in a debate about who is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, you will focus on trying to solve the problem you are confronted with. If however, you are not conscious of the delicateness of the situation you are confronted with, you will start screaming at seeing your son perched atop an electric pole, as it were, even if this means that because of this he will fall down and break his bones. The whole of human history testifies to the fact that if a person is sincere about something, his approach and behaviour will be different, totally contrary to that of a non-serious person. Only a sincere person will be willing to realize the significance of the issues he is faced with. Only such a person will be able to properly appreciate the delicateness of a situation that he finds himself in. In contrast, an insincere man will refuse to accept any evidence or argument that does not suit his way of thinking. He will use every means to rebut this evidence, raising all sorts of unrelated and irrelevant debates in order to obfuscate matters. If someone convincingly answers his arguments, he will set off a new debate, simply in order to refuse to change his stance. Such a person is unwilling and unable to see things as they are. Some days before, a small inter-communal riot had erupted in a town. Based on the experience about such issues the Muslim community was advised to act with patience. But the men said, “In our town, Muslims did not do anything provocative. It was people from the other community who unnecessarily started fighting with us.” On further enquiry the following truth came to light. A temple and a mosque were adjacent in this town. When the loudspeaker in the mosque announced the call to prayer, the bells of the temple rang. Just as the call to prayer was heard by everyone in that area the sound of the bells could be heard inside the mosque. But the people from the mosque objected to the ringing of the bells and when it was not complied with, the riots took place out of anger. In this episode the pertinent question is, what Shariah rule is it to insist that during the Muslim prayer-time a non-Muslim should not ring a bell in his place of worship? Such a thing is mentioned neither in the It is only their own egos that instigate and provoke some Muslims against other people, people who they should be inviting to God instead.