Page 18 - Non-violence and peace-building

Unilateral Action for Peace

However, instead of ignoring these problems, Muslims
become greatly agitated when they are confronted
with them, and the logical result of this is communal
violence.
In every society, there are issues that are best left
ignored. To get entangled in them will only magnify
them even further. This is a basic fact of life. One simply
cannot avoid it. That is why the Quran gives great stress
to patience and the avoidance of conflict.

Not ignoring matters that are best left ignored is a
terrible blunder that Muslims make. The only solution
to communal violence is for Muslims to completely avoid
confrontation with others. If they do this, communal
violence can soon come to an end. But if they do not,
and, instead, they continue with their present policies,
this violence will continue unchecked.
Whenever Muslims talk about communal violence,
they try to do just one thing: engaging in legalistic and
logical analysis to try to find out which community is
responsible for the violence. This is a completely wrong
approach, because there are certain things in life whose
rightness or wrongness is not something to be debated
about. All that needs to be considered in such matters
is how to find a realistic solution to the problem.

When the Hudaybiyah Treaty between Muslims and
the Quraysh was being written up, the Prophet told the
person who was penning the document, “Write that this
is what Muhammad, the Prophet of God, has decided”.
But the representative of the Quraysh, Suhayl ibn Amr,
protested against this, insisting that the document

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