A Preacher of Peace
Communal and racial violences are deplorable, and they are common features of everyday life. Parading in the areas of “the other”, often carrying weapons or singing mocking songs add fuel to the dormant resentment between groups. In Ulster, it was the practice of the Orangemen to parade in Catholic streets, in their distinctive costumes and playing their flutes, which often led to clashes, sometime resulting in death. In Glasgow, Celtic and Rangers (football) supporters have shed each other’s blood often. In 1902 there were over 600 deaths after a match. There have been others since. Burmese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims. Palestinians and Israelis have often killed each other, and are continuing to do so. Sadly India has been the theatre of some of the most tragic inter-communal riots, millions having lost their lives during partition.
In West Bengal, which I visited some years ago, there usually is (was?) a reasonable entente between the majority Hindus and the Muslim minority. The more fanatical Hindus supporting the BJP, and the intolerant supporters of the Taliban eye each other with suspicion at the best of times, but the mainstream worked together in relative harmony. Last week, on March the 27th, a group of young Hindus from an akhada (a Martial arts centre) paraded in Asanol, a largely Muslim conglomeration carrying weapons and sticks. Some hot-blooded Muslims read this display as provocation and fighting broke out. As a result, a teenager Sibtullah Rashidi met with his death. It is not even sure that it was as a result of being attacked, but a large-scale armed conflict was avoided when the boy’s own father, the Imam of the Mosque of Asanol made a speech whilst burying his son stopped all-out war.
“My son has died, but I don’t want anyone else to lose his child. If you strike back,” he told fellow Muslims, “I shall leave this town. I only want peace to return here. I have made the same request to the people who gathered on Thursday.”
We have often come across preachers of hate, and it is refreshing to come across an Imam who mastered his grief (and anger) to preach Peace.
