Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 47
Inter-Religious Peace 47 outnumbered and outweighed by the ‘holy wars’ that Muslims fought against Muslims during the last fourteen centuries. The chapter is not closed. What has been happening in Pakistan vis-à-vis Ahmadiyya Muslims and not too infrequently against the Shiite minority is enough to bring the focus of attention to the fact that this heinous problem which should have died long ago lives on. In Christianity, persecution of Christians at the hands of Christians may appear to be a far cry buried under the debris of European and American history, but a study of the religion-political strife in Ireland appears to prove otherwise. Also there are potential dangers of sectarian strife within Christianity in other parts of the world, which at present are preoccupied with other strife and feuds. In inter-religious relationships, the Hindu-Muslim riots in India, or Muslim-Christian strife in Nigeria or Jewish-Muslim hostilities in the Middle East and elsewhere, and also an undercurrent of politically and economically fragile Judeo-Christian relationship, are all but a few signs of latent dangers which lie like dormant volcanoes in the subterranean religious world. The importance of reforming the attitudes to such problems cannot be over-emphasised. To recapitulate the Islamic approach as to how such problems should be resolved, we conclude by pointing out that: 1) All religions of the world, whether they believe in Islam or not, must conform to the underlying Islamic principle of not permitting the use of force and coercion in any manner as an instrument in resolving inter-sectarian and inter-religious strife. The choice of religion, the freedom to profess, propagate, practise and exercise, or to denounce or to cease to believe or change one’s belief must be protected absolutely.