Satish Kumar Quotes
The force and the strength for peace will come from people. And that will happen when people start to realize that all the diversity and differences we see of nationalities, of religions, of cultures, of languages, are all beautiful diversities, for they are only on the surface. And deep down we share the same humanity, the global humanity.
Kumar, Satish. Path Without Destination: An Autobiography. William Morrow, 1999.
This quotation illustrates that a narrow orthodox view of Islam is not the only one in Arab nations. Khaled is not an obscure cleric, but a popular television personality. While his views are considered heresy by many orthodox Muslims, the narrow view is by no means universal. Orthodox Islamists believe that God has commanded that all mankind be Muslims and the ones who are not are either ignorant so need to be “educated”, or evil and therefore should be killed. However, Muhammad ordained that an exception should be made for “Children of the Book”—Jews and Christians who revere the Old Testament. This was at a time when Christians would not allow any other form of worship but Christianity. Christianity, Judaism and most other religions have become tolerant of other religions and allow open alternative worship. Islam which early on led the way to tolerance, has in many countries gone back to the intolerance that existed amongst many Christians at the time of Muhammad.
Penn observed the fact that most American social relationships are not multicultural in that Blacks in a restaurant tend to eat with other Blacks, whites and Hispanics the same. While America has a multicultural and diverse work environment and use of public services, it is still rare to see very integrated churches, social clubs, parties and other social activities. While Penn’s observation is correct, the trend is towards much more socialization on racial, religious, cultural, and geographical basis. There is much more intermarriage than in the past and with integrated families, many of the other social pluralism will follow. It was once thought that intermarriage would be the last barrier to fall and would follow from school, church, and other social integration. However, it appears that it is the other way around.
Satish Kumar is an Indian British activist and speaker. He has been a Jain monk, nuclear disarmament advocate and pacifist. Now living in England, Kumar is founder and Director of Programmes of the Schumacher College international centre for ecological studies, and is Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. His most notable accomplishment is the completion, together with a companion, E. P. Menon, of a peace walk of over 8,000 miles in 1973–4, from New Delhi to Moscow, Paris, London, and Washington, D.C., the capitals of the world's earliest nuclear-armed countries. He insists that reverence for nature should be at the heart of every political and social debate.
