Thursday, September 9, 2010

Can we have a day of reflection trying to understand how intolerance and violence have affected us in our neighborhood, communities and cities?

We all know when Peace Calls. In the last  few days we have heard the sound of the shofar at a distance. The case of a small church pastor that decided that by burning the Holy Quran, he would make a statement has brought to the fore issues of freedom of speech and the separation of the church and State.  Peace is a fragile concept, it is a the body of a Concord airliner, that can fly high and fast, but... a small piece of rubber can damage its fuselage, and kill all those flying in it. So is the case in front of us. One very small action may have major impact in the hegemony of peace between Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindu's buddhist and Taoists.  

So fierce can the repercussion of this action be that leaders across the world have asked for a reconsideration of this action. I wonder if the good preacher and his congregation stopped to think  what can be a peaceful approach to sensitizing others about of strong feelings of ill actions against all of us. Can we have a day of sharing a reflection on how we have moved on after the events of 9/11. Can we have a day of reflection trying to understand how intolerance and violence have affected us in our neighborhood, communities and cities? Can each of us give three examples of how we can be kinder, trusting, and peaceful brethren? Can we attempt to identify how we can move our peoplehood one step foward by following the lessons from the Holy Quran, the Bible, the Torah, the Book of Tao, the Ramayana, Geeta, or the thoughts of Budha?  Peace is about looking for ways in which we can live, and survive together....

Joseph O. Prewitt Diaz

1 comment:

  1. We should think why the form of Jesus does not appear to a Hindu or the form of Rama does not appear to a Muslim. Whatever religious images and icons we get imprinted on our mind during our life time we regard it as final truth. The real test of religion and religiosity occurs during moments of mental agitation. If the follower is able to restrain himself from violence then the religion wins. If it happens otherwise then religion fails for it has not trained the follower properly.

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