Peace in multicultural society

A particular community of people living in a country or region, and having shared customs, laws, and organisations is called a society. In a society, people depend on each other for life. No society can exist without interdependence and this interdependence on each other has turned the world into a global village. Clashes start when there is differences in customs, laws and organisationswithin the same region or a country. Sometimes these differences become so severe that they become the cause of war and terror.

Lack of tolerance, accommodation and patience lead a region and country toward devastation. Today there is great angst around the world and all peace-loving organisations, institutions, countries and human beings are unhappy because of increasing hatred and conflicts. Beside these, poverty, unemployment, insecurity and disasters both natural as well man made are the contributing factors to these problems. These all are because of cultural conflicts between human beings. Culture, supposed to flourish human life and provide entertainment, has become the cause of hatred by few extremists in society.

We can never eliminate hatred, war and conflicts from our society. Human beings were created with war and conflicts as part of their nature but we can reduce these activities through sincere efforts and work on improving our society. For peace, the primary step is tolerance and accommodation and secondary is the exercise of great patience. This way one can ignore those who abuse your culture, religion or customs. All countries are contributing equally to the spread of hate and hatred. No religion on the surface of this Earth preaches hate.

However, elements from all faiths are using grossly misinterpreted religious misinformation to spread extremism andterrorism. East is creating terrorists but the West is publishing offensive cartoons of Prophets. If someone in the East is disturbing the peace in this world, one should only punish the guilty not the whole society, region or country. The devilish elements should be blamed and punished for their wrong doings not the whole society or a particular culture or religion. Terrorism and torture of human beings are not allowed by any school of thought.

Only a few elements in each society spread hate. Behind hate there are many reasons and here some are highlighted. Exercise of unwanted power of powerful countries against weak countries, clash between capitalism and labour, illegal confinement over other resources, supremacy of few nations and ineffectiveness of world organizations like UNO and others. Even well developed and civilized societies are involved in the disturbance of world peace. As a result, man on the one hand is proceeding towardglobalizationand on the other, he is creating distances between one another.

Culture clash is the most dangerous and explosive reason for the destruction of World peace. For long time, we have claimed illiteracy behind the reason for war, terror and all evils in this world but today we have come to know and realise that in fact there is a serious lack of morality not lack ofeducationbehind the world’s uncertainty. We torture human beings and in turn destroy their innerrespect. The repercussions are retaliations, which are far more intense and inhumane.

In third world countries like Pakistan there is feudal system operating in certain parts of the country and this system is inherited from the previous generations that cannot be eliminated easily because only these feudal lords can change the system but they would never want their supremacy to be demolished. Revolutions do not occur daily, they only come rarely, and without revolution, change in some societies is never possible. A common person in Third World countries cannot enter politics and only politicians can change the policies.

The West needs work force and they want import of men as labour but they are not ready to share capitalism with labour. Trade of goods is liked by every country but countries are not ready for the exchange of art and technologies. If terrorist elements existed in Afghanistan what were the sin of all those innocent men, women and children who had been killed in war on terror? No rule and law of humanity allow us to ruin a nation and country because of one devil. There is great lack of justice, tolerance and accommodation around the world.

As a result, the life of modest, peace loving and normal common person is disturbed. Peace is needed this time. Each country in this world is facing terrorism and world’s approach toward terrorism is not advocated. If any incident takes place in India, it blames Pakistan for this and vice versa. West automatically blames Muslim countries for any terrorism that happens there. These baseless blames on each other not only increase rivalry between nations but also the real culprits take advantage of this situation and escape.

Revival on policies over war on terror has become necessary. North and South, West and East are all suffering from these harsh elements and they should all untidily set a new policy to fight against terrorism. The killing of innocent people around the world has become a passion. It requires a very clear division of ” What is private and what is public”. Religion is a private act of man and one must not interfere in any private matters. While public affairs, need to be handled at government level.

If someone is bad in our surrounding, we must deal with those devils with an iron fist but within the circle of law. We must stop anyone in a society through dialogue from preaching hatred against any political party or school of thought and make them realise that they are doing wrong and disturbing the peace. This is not an easy job for any individual. Through local, national and international organisations, we can make this possible. In every society, there should be some organizations for the preaching of peace and love.

Like in the tribal areas of Pakistan where young children are brain-washed into becoming terrorist andsuicidebombers so why can the government and national and international NGOs not make them civilizedhuman being? What are they all doing and what are they spending those millions and billions of dollars on? As much as this world is spending on war on terror, if some of thatmoneyis spent on the preaching of peace we may be able to change the world in the coming years to some extent. Justice is the firmest pillar of a government.

We must define public and private affairs and make sure that no one is allowed to interfere in the private activities of others. Among private activities, religion and traditions are of foremost importance at local, national as well as international level. The concept of minority and division of human beings on the bases of races, colours and tribes are unjust within people and society. In private activities we are always interdependent and this interdependence has made us rational and social animals. We cannot live without interacting with each other as well with our externalenvironment.

Interrelationship between people always depends on mutual benefits. Even though it should be a give and take relationship, we do tend to give less and take more. We become more sensitive when our rights are under siege but far less sensitive when someone else’s rights are under attack. Honesty is the best policy for the stability of human interrelationship but we do not practise this policy often enough. We should be able to enjoy our freedom to the fullest within the limits of the laws of the land. These limits should be set and watched purely by governmental departments, institutions and agencies.

If some things are disallowed in one region and allowed in another, both regions should respect each other’s feelings and not impose their own rules upon others. The determination and limitation of freedom must be based upon law, culture, religion of any country or region keeping in view the rights of people of other religions living in minority. The United Nations should set limitations through comprehensive dialogue of all member nations keeping in view the demands, needs and interests of each nation. No country should be allowed to interfere in other country’s private affairs.

The West claims that they are the protector ofhuman rightsbut recently they have taken the most actions against humanity by interfering in other countries’ affairs and have labelled the loss of civilian lives as collateral damage. The freedom of everyone should be restricted within walls and these walls might be religion, culture, tradition and others. Within Eastern countries, there is another great drawback at grass root level. In most Eastern countries, hate is spread among children through textbooks.

In their textbooks, there is great admiration for the personalities who had defeated rival countries, religions, invaders or plunderers and great hate for those who had fought with their ancestors centuries ago. As a result, children hate rival nations and this hatred gets stronger when they grow up and spoils the society. Our textbooks must carry lessons of enlightenment, moderation, respect and importance of others, honour of national and international laws, identification of wrongs and rights, good and evils, sense of responsibilities and interdependence of nations and collaboration with their own country.

There is a constant competition among the countries forscience and technology, industrial and energy enrichment. This is a good and positive phenomenon if the competition is positive. Above all, these said problems and causes are common at all national and international level and suggestions need to be implemented at both levels if we are seeking peace and love within our society as a whole around the world.