Page 135 - Age of Peace Goodword.indd

The Age of Peace

This was a radical step, and De Gaulle had to pay a heavy
price for it: he resigned from the post of president in 1969 as
an unpopular leader of France and his death was marked as a
non-event.
However, it was because of De Gaulle’s policies that France
started to develop rapidly and now has the first position in
Europe in the field of nuclear science.
Present-day Muslim leaders ought to take a lesson from
the above example. Their leadership, instead of bringing
any positive gain, has only led to losses for Muslims. In
such a situation, leaders who are spearheading the present-
day militancy should bring about a drastic change in their
policies. They should abandon violence and adopt a peaceful
course of action.
Their own leadership may suffer a setback because of such a
radical policy, but as far as the Muslim community as a whole
is concerned, it will surely begin to make progress along
constructive lines. From being a backward community, it will
begin its journey towards becoming a progressive community.
The greatest positive aspect of this development would be
that the image of Islam – in the eyes of people of the world –
would undergo a great change for the better. Because of the
continuing Muslim militancy all these years, it has come to be
generally believed that Islam is a religion of violence. But if
Muslims adopted the peaceful method, Islam would be known
as a peaceful religion, which enjoined its followers to work
and live peacefully. Indeed, giving a correct picture of Islam is
undoubtedly the greatest need of today.

What Charles De Gaulle did was not the personal policy of
one individual; it was rather based on the law of nature. This
is the policy which is known in common usage as the U-turn
policy, that is, a complete reversal of direction.

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