Religious intolerance has been the forefront of many major global conflicts, but maybe the world can learn something from the co-existing religions in India.
The Dalai Lama said, “India is the only country where all major world religions live together, not only in modern times, but for over 1,000 years” according to The Associated Press.
Although India definitely doesn’t have a clean slate, it is doing relatively well considering it’s the birthplace of four of the world’s main religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—as well as also being home to a large amount of Christians and Muslims.
The roots of many major world religions are founded on peace, love, and harmony—yet, many wars and world conflicts are spurred by religious tensions.
Since the Crusades, religion has been a factor in many disputes, including those happening in the Middle East today.
The ancient Hebrew prophet Isaiah wrote, “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” But comedian George Carlin once observed, “More people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason.”
Arguably, the fundamental motives of most wars, apart from religious intolerance, is greed, dominance, and desire to control and colonialize. It’s still ironic to think that a God that preaches peace and harmony would condone humans killing each other.
Today, tensions are high in Israel and Palestine as Jews and Muslims engage in rocket strikes and bombing campaigns.
Although the struggle is much more complicated and warrants more than a one-sentence explanation, ultimately it can be solved peacefully, without the use of terrorism and thousands of needless deaths.
The peaceful doctrines of numerous Indian religions and religious leaders set an example.
Nonviolent resistance has been proven to work, an example being India’s path to independence under Gandhi’s leadership.
The world can learn something from the Dalai Lama and India. There’s no way we can achieve peace if we have blood on our hands.
