Branding all Muslims as terrorist wrong: Dalai Lama
Mon, 06/02/2008 - 18:08.
By TwoCircles.net staff re****ter,
New Delhi: To blame entire Muslim community for terrorism is wrong, said
Tibetan spiritual
leader Dalai Lama at an international anti-terrorism conference organized
by Jama Masjid United
Forum (JMUF) in the national capital on 1st June.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Dalai Lama said there was no substitute for peace
and violence could
never be a solution to problems. He lauded anti-terrorism campaign
launched by Indian Muslim
religious leader****p.
Besides Dalai Lama, the dignitaries who spoke at the conference included
former Afghan
President Prof. Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, Chief Justice of Maldives Sheikh
Muhammad Rasheed
Ibrahim, Vice-rector of the Tashkent Islamic University Shaislam
Ikramovich Akmalov, Chief
Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad, Imam of Delhi’s Shahi Jama
Masjid Syed Ahmed
Bukhari, Madhu Purnima Kishwar, senior fellow at Centre for the Study of
the Developing
Societies, social activist Teesta Setalvad, Rauff Hakeem, parliamentarian
and former minister
of Sri Lanka, Fr. Vincent M. Concessao, Archbishop of Delhi, Hasham Babar,
secretary general of
Awami National Party of Pakistan and Rashtriya Sahara Group Editor Aziz
Burney.
Inaugurating the programme, Ghulam Nabi Azad said no religion teaches
terrorism and that
poverty, illiteracy, ghetto-culture, social isolation, poor governance and
corruption play a
role in accelerating terrorism that is further abetted by violent
tendencies in some youths.
Ahmed Bukhari said questions like: what is terrorism, who is the
terrorist, who patronize
terrorists and why terrorism is spreading, are answered differently but
all agree that
everywhere in the world it is oppression, injustice, deprivations and
coercion that give birth
to terrorism. As regards India, we saw a series of horrifying anti-Muslim
riots after
independence but the worst example of terrorism was the demolition of
Babri Masjid, Bukhari
said. He regretted that neither is there unity amongst Muslims nor are
Muslim leaders and
organizations united, adding that this disunity is the reason why Muslims
are facing ignominy
and humiliation everywhere.
Madhu Kishwar pointed out that not only the non-state actors are spreading
terror among public
but police and military forces are also frightening the public. So, we
should examine how
lawful our state law agencies are and how tolerant our political
institutions are, she said.
Rauff Hakeem from Sri Lanka said that a bad judicial, police and political
system allows
terrorist organizations to feed on.
Hasham Babar stated that modern education is almost nil in Pakistan border
areas and under
religious education, politics-oriented sermons are delivered instead of
religious or spiritual
ones. He suggested that international communities must have multifaceted
approach to counter
terrorism. He appreciated Indian government’s announcement that Indian
madrasas are not
spreading extremist thoughts.
Teesta Setalvad said that there is a need to examine the term ‘Terrorism’
and differentiate
between speeches and hate speeches, adding that violence could not only
done by terrorists but
also by state-led pogroms. She told that in Naxalite-controlled areas,
there are no modern
education systems but hateful education is provided by the Vishva Hindu
Parishad.
Fr. Vincent M. Concessao maintained that every human is precious;
therefore, every human should
respect life.
K.P.S. Gill said the term ‘Islamic Terrorism’ is completely baseless as we
can not relate
terror with religion or religion with terror.
Agreeing with K.P.S. Gill, Shaislam I. Akmalov upheld that extremism and
terrorism are
international in their nature and we require a comprehensive approach to
tackle these problems.
Appreciating the initiative taken by JMUF by organizing a unique
conference on terrorism, Aziz
Burney regretted that a country that is struggling against terrorism has
been giving birth to
terrorism, violence and riots for decades. He reminded that the killing of
Mahatma Gandhi on
30th January 1948 was carried out by a non-Muslim as were the killings of
ex-Prime Ministers
Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. So, it is meaningless to say that Muslims
are terrorists. On
global terrorism, he said if Saddam Hussein was responsible for thousands
of killings, then why
Bush has not been held responsible for millions of killings in Afghanistan
and Iraq.
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com
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** Posted from http://www.teranews.com
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