Page 74 - Non-violence and peace-building

The Sensible Way to Respond to Provocation

view of finding a possible solution. In contrast, they
see the problems of their community from the point
of view of the possibility that these afford for asserting
their claims to community leadership. If they were to
adopt in community-related affairs the same approach
that they adopt in their personal affairs, their cheap
leadership and cheap popularity would suddenly vanish!
Lamentably, no Muslim leader is courageous enough to
consider doing anything of this sort. But the fact of the
matter is that there is simply no other solution than this
to the problems of the community, including that of
inter-community violence.
We must adopt the same wise approach in matters
relating to the problems of the community as we do in
the case of disputes that involve our personal interests.
If Muslims were to act in this way, inter-community
violence would become a thing of the past.

I once met a man who lived in a place that had
witnessed deadly communal riots, in which Muslims
had suffered enormous loss in a span of just three
days. He said to me, “I have been living in this city for
the last 30 years. But never in all these years have we
witnessed anything like what we witnessed in the last
three days.” And then, as is the norm, he began cursing
the community that he singled out as responsible for
this violence.
I responded to the man saying, “You think a lot about
the riots that continued for three days in your city. But
please also ask yourself that if for the last 30 years there
had been no riots there, what was the reason for this?

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