Peace in Diversity 145having been shot dead at school; the open letter from the French father
with a 17 month old baby who lost his wife in Paris was yet another a
reminder of how much our common humanity is at loss, not just in re-
gions such as Pakistan but also in central Europe, when we lose our
compassion and adopt violence. The insane cycle of violence and the
tragedy resulting from it seems infinite.
In this context, as a scholar who cares about her fellow human be-
ings, I ask: Where is our common humanity? Violence is met with vio-
lent responses and the cycle of hate and terror continues. The Sociolo-
gist, Emil Durkheim, used the analogy of the human body to describe
society. I emphasize that every society must develop its scholars and
thinkers as the thinking faculty of the body of society. Without scholar-
ship being inextricably inter-linked with notions of compassion and re-
spect for the other there is no right way forward when dealing with hu-
man beings. Muslims particularly need to revive their love for
knowledge and cultivate scholars and thinkers who focus and encourage
ideas based on rehem and rahim (compassion and mercy).
10.2 Journey into Europe: Using Film and Fieldwork
as Peace Building Tools
Combining academia and inter-cultural and inter-faith work, I want
to share the following projects based on research and fieldwork that en-
courage respect for the other: 1) Journey into Europe. This is part of a
quartet of projects led by Professor Akbar S. Ahmed with his team of
three other scholars. I was privileged to be one of the team members on
the project responsible for interviewing women and men and bringing
out the diversity of voices and perspectives. Fieldwork took us across
the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, France and Bosnia. We inter-
viewed hundreds of people from taxi drivers to Archbishops to Chief
Rabbis to Grand Muftis. This project included fieldwork over a period