Our Journey towards Peace If you are afraid to fail, then you should go and become a banker... (Yossi Vardi). There were a number of popular sayings I used to hear since my early childhood. I really had no courage to become a doctor, as I was too afraid to see human-blood and was quite scared of surgical operations. I had no interest to become an engineer, as the things associated with machineries and manufacturing procedures were too difficult for me to understand. I never felt comfortable to become a lawyer, though I was good enough to speak and to bargain but being a lawyer is even more terrible than it used to be. So, the only choice I had was to study commerce and business administration to become a Banker and yes, I finally got a job opportunity in one of the leading commercial banks of Pakistan... It is certainly true that 'Banking' is a fulfilling career choice for individuals who want to help the public. Bankers play an important role in society by investing and lending money. They usually get attractive benefits packages from their employer including retirement plan, health insurance, disability insurance and flexible spending accounts for health care. Even the banks also tend to offer educational development and tuition assistance programs to their employees. BUT... even after spending years of my life with the said banking job with full sincerity and honesty, as well as, after enjoying all relevant personal benefits during my career, I still had a feeling deep inside my heart that I am not performing many of my responsibilities, not being a banker but being a good and responsible human. I fully understood the importance to maintain a balance between my personal and professional lives; as usually the bankers forget to have fun in the things they do. So, one day I decided to find out, how will I ever know which is my thing? What is the one thing I will be really good at and so endlessly enthused by that I won t continue this constant dabbling? I looked around myself... I was residing in one of the blessed Asian countries, i.e. Pakistan. Here we had an ancient history, a variety of culture, most colorful traditions, a number of festivals. This country is one of those lands which attracts the people around the world due to its landscape. We have icy mountains and burning deserts at a time. But there were few things lacking... Though according to the confirmed rankings arranged by independent and most reliable surveyors, Pakistan was ranked as one of the least racist countries in the world. The said report was published in the Washington Post in year 2013. Data tabulated from the World Values Survey, compiled by two Swedish economists, implied that Pakistan was among the more racially tolerant countries. The study said that although Pakistan has a number of factors that coincide with racial intolerance and sectarian violence, its location in the least-tolerant region of the world, low economic and human development indices, only 6.5% of Pakistanis objected to a neighbour of a different race. This appeared to suggest Pakistanis are more racially tolerant than even the Germans or the Dutch and this report was so much reliable, as the World Values Survey has been measuring global attitudes and opinions for decades. So, I finally decided to become a 'Peace Activist' in order to show the actual face and real beauty of my beloved Pakistan to the whole world, as well as, to reduce and minimize the temporary factors (including religious intolerance) created by some external powers. For this purpose, I formed a group under title of "" to create peace, unity and brotherhood among all Pakistani people regardless of cultural, religious, sectorial and ethnic differences among them. We started working on a new agenda to create peace and harmony among all the people associated with different castes, colours, cultures and regional languages and luckily, a number of volunteers gathered with us in a very short span of time. Now, the next step was to finalize what to do? I was so much involved in many other activities (including traveling, photography, story writing, research articles writing etc.) without disturbing my professional life. I used to attend various social programs on weekends including different seminars, workshops and festivals etc. that made me get many links in different sectors and departments; so, I decided to utilize all such activities in order to create and to spread peace! We realized that today, many non-muslims regard Islam as a religion that promotes peace, tolerance and harmony; as they do not rely on most of the western media reports, which are mostly spreading inaccurate and inappropriate news about Islam. Many media outlets, such as TV, radio, newspapers and magazines, are influenced by their investors or owners who have certain agendas and who want to promote certain values and points of view. However, some media outlets are simply after the "big story", in order to make more money and more profits. Others are simply "followers", who only gather news from other sources, re-package it and try to sell it again purely as a business. In all these cases, the news reporting is not accurate, but is driven by ulterior motives or simply by profits. Only very few media organizations are committed to providing accurate and true information, regardless of financial gain. Therefore, people today should be very careful in what they take from the media.
We started our mission to prove that Islam is in fact a religion that promotes peace and understanding among people of all faiths, and it strongly prohibits all forms of violence and aggression against all people regardless of their faith or race. I feel lucky because my beloved Pakistan has a huge number of religious communities, including Catholic and Protestant Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Parsis... and even Jews too. And another fact was so much fascinating to us that being an Islamic country; Pakistan has a number of most sacred places and pilgrimage areas which were associated to other religions. We realized that we have Katasraj (Chakwal, Pakistan) and Hinglaj (Balochistan, Pakistan) which were listed amongst the holiest Hindu places. We have the glorious areas of Nankana Sahib, Panja Sahib and Kartarpur which were listed amongst the sacred Sikh places. We have the monasteries of Taxila (including Dharmarajika, Pipplan and Jaulian) which attract Buddhist people due to the sacred history of Gautam Budh with all those areas. We have Maryamabad (Punjab, Pakistan) which is one of Pakistan's oldest Catholic settlements and a holy site of an annual pilgrimage of Catholics. We initially decided to arrange peace-tours to the different religious monuments and pilgrimage areas (associated with other religions). Our journey took us to the sacred gurdwaras of Nankana Sahib district (which is the birthplace of first Sikh Guru, Baba Guru Nanak Dev ji). We visited Hassan Abdal in order to visit Gurdwara Panja Sahib and we visited Kartarpur to see Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, further Sikh pilgrimage areas. We found a number of things which were amazingly similar in both religions (i.e. Islam and Sikhism) and we realized that the said things can bring both nations closer to each others. Like... Both people (Muslims & Sikhs) are strictly monotheistic. Both believe that God is one. Both religions reject idol worship. Both religions believe in War for righteousness. Both religions follow their Holy Books strictly. Charity receives equal treatment in both religions. Islam and Sikhism are both against caste system. So, all these similarities helped us a lot have detailed discussions with Sikh nation and to develop more understanding with them. We met Sikh youth and I felt honour to interview some of the very prominent figures amongst Pakistani Sikh nation. I interviewed Dr. Mimpal Singh (the first ever Sikh MBBS doctor in the history of Pakistan), who is one of the brightest examples of religious diversity in Pakistan with perfect harmony. His ideas and opinions were absolutely remarkable. I also interviewed Jassi Lailpuria (the first singer and musician from Pakistani Sikh community) and I got a wonderful response from the readers. Besides these interviews, I got the opportunity to participate in the most colourful festivals arranged by Sikh nation in Pakistan. These kind of festivals (especially Besakhi) were too important to us to join, as we got a wonderful opportunity to meet a number of Sikh members around the globe, especially from India, Canada and Malaysia. Prasad (in shape of Halwa with main ingredients of wheat flour, sugar and ghee) is offered to all visitors in gurdwara without any distinction of status or caste. It has a very important religious significance because it is considered a blessed food by the Guru and it should not be refused to accept (if not accepted may be interpreted by Sikhs as an insult). As a sign of humility and respect, the visitors accept the Prasad sitting with hands raised and cupped. The offering and receiving of Prasad is a vital part of hospitality protocols. I still remember the taste of that delicious tea that I took during the festival of "Besakhi" in Lahore. It was a great spending time with hundreds of Indian and Canadian Sikh yatrees at Gurdwara Dera Sahib and I am really proud of my most colourful land of Punjab who welcomes and hosts thousands of yatrees every year.
A memorable moment... sharing 'Guru Ka Langar' with one of the prestigious Indian guests at Gurdwara Dera Sahib (Lahore, Pakistan) during the festival of Besakhi. Langar teaches the etiquette of sitting and eating in a community situation, which has played a great part in upholding the virtue of sameness of all human beings; providing a welcome, secure and protected sanctuary. It was therefore a special moment for me, as I got an opportunity not only to share the langar, but also to share a smile and to share a very pleasant time with a person who had so many ancient memories to share with me "THE INDIAN MOTHERS" :: That was one of those most memorable moments which I shall definitely always remember. These four honourable ladies were amongst those thousands of Indian yatrees who visited Pakistan this year during the festival of Besakhi. Their faces were glowing with real happiness and when I hugged and kissed them at the end of our meeting, I really felt the fragrance of my own mother. I convey my special salam to all Indian mothers who visited Pakistan this year During our peace activities and inter-provincial peace tours, we also met Hindu community of Pakistan. I feel lucky to get maximum response from their side, as they provided me various opportunities to visit a number of Hindu locations and religious places in Lahore, Chakwal and Rawalpindi (Punjab province), as well as, in Hyderabad, Odero Lal, Thatta (Sindh province). It is certainly true that Hindus are in practice to celebrate all of their festivals in such a colourful style that attracts thousands of the people around the globe. We participated in a number of Hindu festivals (including Holi, Diwali, Shivratri, Navratri, Dossehra, Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami etc.) in the district of Lahore and we got the honour to deliver peace-lectures to the hundreds of the audience in order to create more peace and friendship between Muslim and Hindu nations in Pakistan. In the same manner, we attended such a grand festival of Navratri in Hyderabad where I first time got a chance to view traditional Hindus' life during my short visit to their residential area.
Meanwhile, during my visit to the Oderolal village (located almost 40 kilometers away from the Sanghar district, Sindh province), I amazingly found a cradle of tolerance which is associated with Jhoolay Lal. No one can ever believe that Hindus and Muslims can pray at the same place simultaneously... Interestingly, contrary to the popular conceptions of the puritanical and narrow confines of religion, there still exist certain elements in our society that are a manifestation of our centuries old traditions of religious coexistence. The shrine of Saint Jhoolay Lal is one of these examples. Most Muslims call the saint Khawaja Khizar, who is believed to guide people travelling through water courses and on voyages. The shrine of Jhoolay Lal has its own distinctive attraction and uniqueness, i.e. both Muslim and Hindu disciples of Sindh province ring the bell at the entrance of the shrine in order to mark their attendance. The fishermen, held the saint in high esteem. Jhoolay Lal is also called Zinda Pir, Sheikh Tahir, Khawaja Khizar, Odero Lal and Amar Lal. However, the local Hindus relate him to the River Indus and sometimes revered him as an incarnation of their God of Rivers and Oceans, Varuna in Sindh. The Grand Festival of Navratri in Hyderabad (Sindh, Pakistan) Navratri is a festival dedicated to the worship of the Hindu deity Durga. The word Navaratri means 'nine nights' in Sanskrit, nava meaning nine and ratri meaning nights. During these nine nights and ten days, nine forms of Shakti/ Devi are worshiped. I was especially thankful to the management of the festival who warmly invited me to participate. It was overall a wonderful event as thousands of Pakistani Hindus joined this festival in Hyderabad another big opportunity for me to watch thousands of Hindus together in a single place J. The festival was ended after puja ceremony of three different incarnations of the hindu goddess of power, i.e. Parvati, Durga and Kali A Peace Tour to Krishna Mandir (Rawalpindi)
A Peace Tour to Krishna Mandir (Rawalpindi) Raksha Bandhan is a celebration of one such relation - that of a brother and a sister. Raksha Bandhan is a festival which celebrates the bond of affection between brothers and sisters. It is a day when siblings pray for each others' well being and wish for each others' happiness and goodwill. Diwali is a five-day Hindu festival which starts on Dhanteras, celebrated on the thirteenth lunar day of Krishna paksha (dark fortnight) of the Hindu calendar month Ashwin and ends on Bhaubeej, celebrated on the second lunar day of Shukla paksha of the Hindu calendar month Kartik. Dhanteras usually falls eighteen days after Dussehra. For Hindus, Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes. Holi is an important festival to Hindus. It is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna, which usually falls in March. In this festival, children and youth spray coloured powder solutions (Gulal) at each other, laugh and celebrate, while elders tend to smear dry coloured powder (Abir) on each other's face. In comparison with Sikh and Hindu communities in Pakistan, I had even more opportunities to have detailed meetings and discussions with Christian community, as they were larger in number (especially in Punjab province). I visited both Catholic and Protestant communities and heard the problems they usually face, especially due to lack of good education and lessor job opportunities. I especially attended the Easter Mass service this year and we discussed about the current relationship between both nations (Muslims &
Christians) in Pakistan and we focused on the utmost need of peace and harmony between the two religions. We also visited a number of most beautiful churches and cathedrals in Lahore and Rawalpindi and we realized that in present era, the most beautiful churches and extremely peaceful milieu presents a refreshingly different image of Pakistan. In addition to this, it was truly an honour for me to meet Brigadier Samson Simon Sharaf (a retired official of Pakistan Army and a military scientist with a total service of 33 years) at his residence during our peace tour to the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. He also serves in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Shadow Cabinet as the Spokesperson for Defense Production. In year 2005, the President of Pakistan conferred awards in the Order of Imtiaz (Military) to the officers of the armed forces in Rawalpindi on the occasion of Independence Day of Pakistan. Mr. Samson Simon was awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz (one of the highest army awards of Pakistan). In order to pay special honour to the Buddhist community around the globe, we visited a number of sacred Buddhist locations in Pakistan; especially Dharmarajika Stupa, where one of the body-relics of Gautama Buddha was buried. It was really unfortunate to see that Pakistani Airlines have no special arrangements for the Buddhist countries to arrange detailed guided tours to the Buddhist monuments. Neither they offer any special/ discount packages for air travel to Pakistan... but Thai Airways, do offer special packages and trips to various Buddhist countries and they also earn a huge revenue against the same.
A statue of buddha with a hole in the navel (located at Jaulian, Pakistan) is an odd artifact. It is called the "Healing Buddha". Buddhist pilgrims put their fingers in the navel hole and pray for the ailment of the patients. The Healing Buddha, a stone Buddha with a hole in his navel, is set in the north corner of the main stupa of Mohra Moradu (Taxila, Pakistan). Buddha s followers put their fingers in its naval hole and pray for a cure for their ailments. We have recently started new peace-tours (especially designed for local non-muslim community) and we take them to the short trips to beautiful masjids and popular shrines. In this regard, three tours have already been made, including a peace-tour for Sikh community to the shrine of Waris Shah, peace-tour for Hindu community to grand mosque, Behria Town (7th largest mosque of the world), and a peace-tour for Hindu community to the shrine of Madho Lal Hussain. In addition to the said peace-tours, we also have plans for Sikh and Christian community to Gujrat and Marriamabad. A Peace Tour to Grand Mosque (Behria Town, Lahore) with our Hindu Friends
A Peace Tour to the Shrine of Madho Lal Hussain with our Hindu Friends During all my peace-activities in all those years; I certainly succeeded to win so many achievements. I successfully completed "Interfaith Conflict Resolution Course" and I received Certificate of Course Completion from "The United States Institute of Peace" (Washington DC, USA). It was an independent, nonpartisan, federally funded American organization, which was established by US Congress in 1984. I also received a Certificate from Peace Operations Training Institute upon successful completion of my training course on "Peacekeeping and International Conflict Resolution" against 100% scholarship. That institute is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the United States of America, and their courses and programmes have been repeatedly welcomed by the United Nations Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations. I proudly received an accolade from Dr. Ajmal Niazi (a great Scholar, Columnist and Analyst) on my services for minorities and performance for the welfare of society during the grand ceremony of National
Minorities Award Show 2015 organized by Sada.e.Aqliat Foundation in Lahore (Pakistan). It was certainly a great achievement for me. I also felt honoured to receive "Peace Activity Certificate" from Mattie J.T. Stepanek Foundation, USA on behalf of Pakistan Peacekeeping Mission for organizing "Few Hours in the Memories of Mattie Stepanek", an outreach activity in Lahore, Pakistan. The said organization was a non-profit organization that was created in the year 2005 in memory of the late teen poet and peace activist, Mattie J.T. Stepanek. In addition to this, I also received "The Dove of Peace Certificate" from The International Forum for the Literature & Culture of Peace (IFLAC), Israel. I also felt glad to receive the official title of IFLAC Peace Ambassador in Pakistan. Now, I really wish to explore the Jewish community in Pakistan under the banner of IFLAC, Israel. Very few people know that there are around 800 Jewish voters registered in Pakistan out of which 427 are women and 382 men (according to the Election Commission of Pakistan). Many researchers claim that there are still many Jews living in Pakistan (might be a few thousands not hundreds), given Pakistan s relations with Israel and Zionism they chose to fade away into the background. Recently, Fishel Benkhald has been in the news as Pakistan s last self-declared Jew leading a campaign to restore Karachi s Jewish cemetery. However, he is not the last Jewish Pakistani, just one that has chosen to come out of the shadows. I am really thankful to everyone at IFLAC for their kind coordination and I expect more smooth, friendly and peaceful relations between Muslim and Jewish people around the globe. Farhan Wilayat Butt