Peace in Diversity 151cycle. This course like the two textbooks covered topics from the basic
peace building blocks of religion to the dialogue of civilizations debate,
to tools of dialogue and empathy and so forth. Significantly the course
allowed for one subject to cover the difference between religion and
culture (this is often confused in the media leading to wrong assump-
tions about religion).
It is interesting to note from the “before and after the course” data
and questionnaires, the significant change in views and values of certain
students after taking the course. Every year we encountered a small, but
significant, number of students with radical perspectives, students came
from all backgrounds and from all areas of Pakistan including FATA -
South Waziristan, and Quetta where there is raging sectarian and reli-
gious conflict. To give you a range of perspectives held by a small num-
ber of students before the course here are some examples - At the begin-
ning of the course, one student (very polite and co-operative throughout
the course) said that dialogue was aggressive; another student (clean
shaved, jeans-wearing, and about to graduate from Forman Christian
College: he was in his third year when he attended the CD&A course)
said that people of all other faiths, except for Muslims, are, according to
his uncle in the village, ‘wajib ul qatal’. He understood this to be a reli-
gious obligation to kill people who were not Muslim. To hear this in
class at Forman Christian College was worrying as this was also the
university that had produced the top leaders (presidents, political lead-
ers, and chief justices of both Pakistan and India). FC itself of course
also always encouraged a sense of inclusiveness and diversity so we
were surprised to find these views there—this was more a reflection of
what was going on in the Muslim world in general and Pakistan in par-
ticular.
I knew that the journey of these young 21 and 22-year-old boys and
girls had just begun when they entered this course (note that many of the
people who carried out terrorist killings were in the age range of 22-24