Learn from Mahatma Gandhi
When Mahatma Gandhi launched his non-violent movement to end the British colonial rule in India, he made it clear why he rejected all calls for leading a violent freedom struggle: "If Indians take up guns to kill the British, given India's great religious and ethnic divisions, they would still be using the same guns to kill each other long after the British had gone. If India makes violence her creed, I will not care to live in India."
Although Gandhi gained India's freedom non-violently, India erupted into violence between Hindus and Muslims on the eve of independence. The issue was partition of India. India's Muslim minority wanted a separate state composed of areas where they would be a majority. The Hindu majority, on the other hand, adamantly opposed any break-up. The result was a bloodbath. Gandhi appealed to Hindus and Muslims to stop slaughtering each other. He said: "I non-violently convinced the British to leave, why can't we do the same with each other?" When the appeal failed, Gandhi went on a hunger strike to death unless moderate Hindus and Muslims stepped in and stopped the massacre. Within a week, the killings stopped. Gandhi, with a broken heart, accepted partitioning of the country into India and Pakistan.
Today, Pakistani extremists are slaughtering their fellow Muslims in the name of their version of Islam. Majority Sunnis are slaughtering the minority Shias and the Shias are striking back. Extremists belonging to Taliban/al-Qaeda have been bombing schools, hotels, hospitals and even mosques.
And yet, most Pakistanis blame the West for this slaughter of Muslims by fellow Muslims.
Gandhi urged Hindus and Muslims to form joint committees to stop communal violence. Similarly, Sunnis and Shias should form joint committees to stop the slaughter of Shias by Sunni extremists.
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