Islam and Peace
Towards a Non-Violent World
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the path of adjustment with it; in so doing, they
were tremendously successful.
The truth is that intellectual awakening is the only
way to produce a non-violent world. This is,
without doubt, a long and laborious struggle. But
we have no other alternative. I have myself been
experimenting for the last 25 years in this field and
my experience has been successful to a satisfactory
extent.
After giving the matter a great deal of thought, I
have come to the conclusion that, in most instances,
violence is the result of misguided thinking. The
day you succeed in putting an end to such thought,
violence will of itself disappear.
Take the case, for example, of communal riots in
India. In this matter I have done considerable work
among the Muslims, having found that in most of
the cases communal riots result from this erroneous
way of thinking. I have always taken great pains to
make them understand, for example, that when the
procession are being led through the streets by
other communities, the choice before them is not, as
they imagine, either to tolerate the procession or to
