‘Religion is a guide book to live your life constructively’

Dr Zeenat Shaukat Ali, professor of Islamic studies at Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College has been at the helm of a unique peace project in the city. Now over three years old, the programme included a cricket match in March 2008 between two teams of Muslim, Hindu, Christian clerics — strictly not distributed along religious lines — along with counterparts from other religions played at the Brabourne Stadium.

A year later, in June 2009, Islamic clerics spoke about the idea of the human family in Islam and the Prophet’s legacy of conflict resolution and co-existence of diverse peoples.

Early last week, Zeenat Ali, who heads the World Institute of Islamic Studies for Dialogue, Organisation of Mediation and Gender Justice (WISDOM Foundation), released Winning The Peace: A Quest, a collection of essays and commentaries by leading Islamic scholars. Some of the essays were chosen from a competition that she had organised for imams from Mumbai’s mosques. Other contributors to the book are recognised religious scholars like Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan and Rev Dr Hans Ucko, scholar, peacemaker and former member of the World Council of Churches. Zeenat Ali agreed to an interview with Manoj R Nair.Excerpts:

Where did the idea for the project come from? Was it an incident or experience that led you to pursue it?
There was a reason. Ever since 9/11, the world has been divided into two parts and now there are other new smaller parts. The violence that took place shocked me. It was unjustifiable. That was the seed for the project. Now we come to our country. We also see ourselves in two parts. Ever since the Babri Masjid demolition (in 1992), and the 2002 riots in Gujarat, people and communities have been falling apart. There have been constant terror attacks all over the world and people have been living in fear. All of it was attributed to religion. The truth is religion has little or nothing to do with it.
 

You have said it is more a fight for resources.
This conflict is not related to one party or community. The Basque struggle, the IRA movement, the Israel-Palestine conflict, even Apartheid in South Africa — most of these issues had to do with resources. In case of Apartheid, the issue was about the control of diamonds, though Dutch settlers had laid the foundations for a divisive policy. As I wondered what did all this have to do with religion, I realised it had more to do with resources.

Conflict resolution is an important theme in your book. You have used Prophet Mohammad’s example to stress that Islam has a history of peaceful resolution of conflicts.
Prophet Mohammad was well known as a peacemaker and arbitrator. Basically, I am a Gandhian (Ali heads the Sarvodaya International Trust) and believe that conflict can be avoided. One verse in the Koran says that reconciliation is best. The question is — do you need to kill in a conflict? We need to learn civilised ways to deal with a conflict. The common man’s life should be preserved during a conflict. Every religion says ‘Thou shall not kill’. But killing in the name of religion is rampant. I feel women should take a leading role in conflict resolution because they have a lot at stake. Their sons and husbands go to war. So they have to devise methods for conflict resolution. As the world becomes more complex, complicated, more divided and more unconcerned about the other, we have to have a common goal. Globalisation has to be embraced by us as equal partners.

One of the primary aims of the book is to clear misinterpretations and misinformation about Islam, both among its own believers and people of other faiths.
Are the Taliban scholars that we have to take them seriously? When scholars of Islam say something, how is it that we do not consider that, and listening to what the Taliban says about Islam. I am looking at the issue as a world citizen, as a citizen who cares, and as a proud Indian. I wish I could find solutions (to conflicts) but I have not been able to give the answers in the book. But we can raise consciousness in civil society and government.

Your project included a cricket match, an art event, an essay competition for imams, and now a book. How were these diverse components integrated into the peace project?
I used to think how can we unite people in a world that is increasingly getting divided. I realised that once you get people together, they will form friendships with each other.  These are my findings from the project. When one community is identified with terror, I said that the clerics from that community should write essays on the tradition of tolerance and harmony in Islam. They were so happy somebody had asked them to write. They put their heads into the pen and wrote. That is how the book began. They wrote in Urdu and Dr Asgar Ali Engineer (an Islamic scholar) translated them. Maulana Mohammed Shoaib Koti and Maulana Mustakeem Azmi agreed to be the judges.

Recently, the new head of the Darul Uloom seminary at Deoband, Maulana Ghulam Vastanvi reportedly said that he appreciated the administrative work done by [Gujarat chief minister] Narendra Modi and that it was time to move on from the 2002 riots. What are you views?
Like (former Serbian leader Slobodan) Milosevic who was implicated in the Bosnia genocide, Narendra Modi should be booked for what he has done.

The law must take its own course. I agree that we have to move on and give credit for good administration, but on the other hand, you cannot allow injustice. A terrorist, whatever the background, has to be punished.

Once it could be said that religious extremism affected only a minority in most societies. But the support for Salman Taseer’s killing in Pakistan shows that intolerance may no longer be confined to a small fringe.

Taseer’s killing is another blot on the name of Pakistan. I do not think the killing had anything to do with Islam. I have little opinion on where Pakistan is headed. Of course, the laws of blasphemy cannot be sustained. There are ample examples in the Prophet’s life where people hurt him. What did he do? He forgave these people and he never hurt them. That was the greatness of his character. His followers have to learn from his example. If there is a disagreement, you have to debate and discuss the issue.

After three years, what are your thoughts about the peace initiative?
I was an observer and we had several groups participating in the project. There was something positive that came out of the project. I did not find anger. They were all working towards a focal point.