I was scanning through the African countries and their culture, when I came across The credit goes to the leaders of
According to a survey conducted by Global Peace Index (GPI) in 2009,
The big question is; why the leaders of
Malawi: A Land of Implicit Peace
I was scanning through the African countries and their culture, when I came across 
Respect (or disrespect) for the Public Opinion
After the fateful events of 9 / 11, when the former president of USA George W Bush announced a ‘crusade’ against the planners of the attacks, the collective wisdom of masses woke up quickly. A surge of anti-war rallies and demonstrations was seen in almost every capital of the world. The general public on the streets were mindful of the fact that a direct military attack on
Human Attributes Breed Love and Love Breeds Peace
If I ask some simple questions from you; why should you tolerate the stupidity of others, why should you sacrifice your interests and benefits for the sake of others and why should you impart justice to others, particularly when the other side is much weaker than you, how would you respond? Someone may come up with the idea of human wisdom; others may bring out the logic and reasoning based on the knowledge.I can bet that no amount of scientific research will be able to answer these questions up to the entire satisfaction. This Is because the subject does not fall in the realm of wisdom and knowledge. It is governed by the other side of the man ie human attributes related to character-building. Once these attributes are demonstrated, a tangible degree of tolerance, harmony, cooperation, affection and love breeds; and certainly peace is the ultimate outcome. Love and peace are inter-related and inter-dependent also.
As and when the people would desire that there should be peace in the world, it is a must for them to develop and display human attributes.
The War Monger vs The Peace Lovers
A continuous struggle goes on between two kinds of groups ie the war mongers and the peace lovers. The world history is witness to the fact that although the peace lovers are always in majority but the war mongers have always prevailed. The question arises why; after all, the minority prevails over the majority. Are the war mongers more powerful? Do they have more resources? Do they have more sophisticated and attractive philosophy than the peace lovers? The answers to these questions may lead us to any conclusion but the fact is that so far in the history of mankind the peace lovers have remained hostage in the hands of war mongers. As soon as the peace lovers start some peace process (which is mostly in the form of dialogue between warring factions) someone throws a spanner into the system and the process comes to a halt. The result is nothing but the disappointment and dismay. Just take the example of dialogues between the Israelis and the Palestinians. As soon as a ray of hope is visible, the dialogue process is thwarted by the war mongers from both the sides. Same is the case with Let all the peace lovers join hands to neutralize the nefarious designs of the war mongers.
Pastor Terry Jones cancels his plan to burn copies of the Holy Quran on 11 September 2010 amid world wide violent protests by Muslims
Pastor Terry Jones of a Florida church , Dove World Outreach Center, who earlier had announced that he will burn the copies of Holy Quran on 11 September 2010 has canceled his plan after a telephonic call from Defense Secretary of State Mr. Robert Gates, who urged him to refrain. Pastor Terry Jones had made this announcement as a protest against the proposed construction of an Islamic center and a mosque near ground zero in New York. The Muslim clerics have denied striking any deal with the pastor in exchange of the cancellation of the said plan.
This announcement coupled with protests by other groups against the proposed construction of Islamic centre and mosque near ground zero had stirred the calm of the Muslim world. This construction was being seen by majority of the Muslims as a good will gesture by the American government to reduce the distances between the Muslims and the other religious communities. The construction of mosque near ground zero would have given a clear message to the world as whole and to the terrorists in particular that the Muslims are not the supporters of terrorism and they denounce it with full force. In this situation the terrorists would have been isolated from rest of the Muslims that could have made the goal of fight against terror much easier and achievable.
The perception that Islam as a religion is totally against any act of violence and terror is believed by most of the people in the world. The Americans in particular know the behavior and attitude of Muslims living along with them since ages. The Americans are a peace-loving people who believe in mutual peaceful co-existence. This is the reason that they fully supported the idea of construction of mosque. However the radical groups with extremist posture have their own agenda and vested interests. They do not want to see the Muslims getting closer with the American people. Hence they launched these protests.
People like Pastor Terry Jones become an easy tool for those having vested interests. Just look at the teachings of the Holy Bible and Jesus Christ regarding the peace and see the behavior of the pastor in contrast to those teachings. Ironically the name of the church is ‘Dove’ World Outreach and the plan announced from there was nothing but ‘hawkish’. Mere announcement from the pastor had created world wide disturbances. Violent protests against the US in Pakistan and other Muslim countries have given a further blow to the already fragile relations between the US and the Muslim world. Apart, the announcement of desecration of the Holy Quran had put the life of Christian minorities at risk who are already vulnerable to the attacks by the extremists. The planned desecration of the Holy Quran would have given a severe blow to the cause of world peace. It is a good omen that a very serious crisis has been averted just ahead of the 9th anniversary of the fateful events of 11 September 2001. We hope that the sense would prevail and the persons like Pastor Terry Jones are not allowed to make the global peace as hostage of their personal motives and gains. Such people must be reminded that the life and property of the millions of innocent Muslims and Christians is more precious than their personal and short-term gains.
Concept of Peace is Inseparable from Buddhism
Buddhism developed from the teaching of Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha (c.563 - 483 BC), who believed that human suffering could be overcome by following a particular way of life. The first precept of Buddhism is 'non-harming' (ahimsa): Buddhists reject violence. Buddhism is clearly pacifist in its teaching, and many Buddhists say quite bluntly that it is ‘better to be killed than to kill’. Some Buddhists have been very active in promoting peace, particularly during the Vietnam War (1961- 1975), when they offered a 'Third Way' of reconciliation between the American and Communist armies. Some Buddhist monks burned themselves to death in self-sacrificing protest against the war.
Buddhism perhaps has the best record of all religions for non-violence. However, Buddhists in Sri Lanka have been criticized for oppressing the Tamil minority there (Tamils are a mostly Hindu people whose origins are in southern India)
Buddhism, like all religions, seeks to be ethical. Confucianism and Taoism, which both developed in China, also share similar principles with Buddhism. For example, they seek to adjust human life to the inner harmony of nature (Confucianism) and emphasizes mediation and non-violence as means to the higher life (Taoism). The founders of these religions, Confucius and Lao-Tsze, lived in the same period as Buddha, the 6th century BC.
Sikhism focused at Eliminating the Differences between Religions
Guru Nanak (1469-1534), the first Sikh Guru (a guru is a spiritual teacher, a revered instructor) wrote this hymn:
‘No one is my enemy
No one is a foreigner
with all I am at peace
God within us renders us
Incapable of hate and prejudice.’
He too emphasized the importance of non-violence and the equality of all humans whatever their religion (he was particularly concerned to reconcile Hinduism and Islam). But this pacifist emphasis changed as persecution against the Sikhs developed. The sixth Guru said:
“In the Guru’s house, religion and worldly enjoyment should be combined - the cooking
pot to feed the poor and needy and the sword to hit oppressors.”
The tenth and last Guru, Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) was a general as well as a Guru. In order to strengthen the courage and military discipline of the Sikhs at a time of great persecution, he organized the Khalsa - the Sikh brotherhood. Guru Gobind Singh expressed the idea of 'Just War' as follows:
“When all efforts to restore peace prove
useless and no words avail,
Lawful is the flash of steel,
it is right to draw the sword.”
But the idea of 'Holy War' is not found in Sikhism. A central teaching of Sikhism is respect for people of all faiths.