Peace in Diversity 153At the Centre for International Peace and Stability (NUST) in Islam-
abad I taught the first Pakistani PhD students from the subject Peace and
Conflict Studies. In the class, I used the textbook Accepting Difference
to teach from. On the last page we explored the building blocks of dia-
logue which emphasized respecting and accepting difference without
violence. A Brigadier from the Pakistan army who was doing his PhD
said after reading Accepting Difference that it struck him that he could
solve difficult problems now simply through the tools of dialogue rather
than by force. This, he said, is a lesson he will take away with him from
this class. I was also curious to see if the course had had any impact on
the KP students’ perspectives and perceptions about the perceived “Oth-
er”. One student from Swat said, “reading the Last Sermon of the
Prophet (PBUH) in Accepting Difference, in which it clearly states that
all humankind are equal and no Arab is superior over a non-Arab, I did
not realize the significance of equality in Islam.” He said his ignorance
of his own religion struck him.
In Lahore, at Forman Christian College University, the young 21
year old boy who, at the beginning of the course, had said in class that
all non-Muslims were wajib ul qatal now stood before me in a group of
boys after the last class of the course that I taught. I gathered the boys
and asked, “beton (sons), what do you think of dialogue now?” The
same boy was quick to jump in and answer, “Ma’am, I’m a changed
man! I will not use violence but the pen (qalam) to change our world.”
Both examples from the universities of NUST and FCCU in two differ-
ent cities of Pakistan show that the students (whether hard boiled briga-
diers or young students about to enter the world) were able to see their
world through different frames at the end of the course. They had indeed
changed their perspectives in the way they perceived the religious, eth-
nic and gendered other. This gave us hope—more bridge building work
needs to be done, especially work connecting ordinary people to each
other in different regions of our shared world.