Peace in Diversity 155sions of Middle Eastern Muslims, Indian Muslims, Malaysian Muslims,
Chinese Muslims, American Muslims, UK Muslims, European Muslims,
as well as Christians, Jews, and so forth. This perspective would also
allow for engaging with people of other cultures and faiths as God’s
precious creation. Accepting Difference, therefore, would allow for co-
existence. This perspective is, thus about bringing different ideas and
ways of doing things together in a harmonious way. The key is to build
mutual respect and deeper understanding through dialogue. This can be
done through the efforts of peace building and interfaith centres. The
work of the CD&A is one such example—a new subject on peace build-
ing, textbooks on Accepting Difference for students and teachers in dif-
ferent local languages to impact not just the elite community of English-
speakers but one which is disseminated and accessible more widely.
Courses of this nature must be made compulsory in schools and univer-
sities, taught at service academies, to the media, and policy makers.
To move forward, we must equip ourselves with the tools/skills of
peace knowledge, which will lead to understanding, and respect for hu-
man dignity. Despite growing violent extremism, there is hope if we
work towards turning the tide. What the media fails to convey is that this
is not a battle between the East and the West, between Judeo-
Christianity against Islam, or between civilizations; it is simply a battle
between ignorance (jahiliya) of humankind at its lowest level and at its
highest—of knowledge that is inextricably interlinked with moral good-
ness, between those who care and those who don’t, between those who
know and those who wish not to know and those who heal (by their self-
lessness) and those who damage the world (by their selfishness). Of
course, there are shades of grey in between but largely it is a battle be-
tween those who divide and benefit from it and those who unite humani-
ty.^136
136
As this article is based on the work of AH—ideas here have been shared with
other institutions and publications.