Witnesses of Mercy for Peace and Reconciliation

53 WITNESSING MERCY FOR PEACE AND RECONCILIAT ION programmes held at JRC. Eventually I served as a faculty member at MIT, teaching Islamic studies to the various courses, especially the master course in interfaith studies. In 2012, at the instigation of evil-minded people, the so-called religious conflict between Muslims and Bud- dhists began in Rakhine State. Simple but closed-minded nationalist Buddhist were dragged into the conflict wittingly or unwittingly. They sincerely believed that their race and religion needed to be protected from the onslaught of Islamisation. The violence spilled over to the centre of Myanmar, where Muslims had been living har- moniously with their fellow Buddhist countrymen since the time of Myanmar kings. The conflicts spread to other parts of the country. Religions for Peace along with the other organizations acted rapidly to defuse the tension. I would like to conclude by sharing my efforts to halt the violence, transform hate speeches into love speeches and strive for peaceful coexistence again in Rakhine. I was a panellist at a seminar on peace, tolerance and human dignity jointly organized by a prominent but highly controversial senior Myanmar monk and the International Interfaith Organization. While I was pre- senting my paper, I received reports that in some villages around Thandwe, a southern town in Rakhine State, Muslim houses were being burned down, shops looted and elderly men and women killed. I halted my pres- entation and told the senior monk who was presiding over the programme that here we were talking about peace, love, tolerance and human dignity but in Rakhine State people were being butchered by radical extremists. I told him that we should go there and do something to establish peace. The monk had influence over the then ruling party elite and he agreed immediately, while we were still on the stage, to visit the conflict area with me. So, we went to Thandwe. The army provided a heli- copter and we managed to get to the hardest hit villages where the monk and I spoke to both communities. The monk promised a donation for the construction of a medical clinic in the Muslim village and to renovate the primary school. We also spoke to both communi- ties in Thandwe town. Our visit considerably cooled the disturbances and the area has gradually returned to normal, with reconciliation and peaceful coexistence between the two communities resumed up to now. This is just one example of my contribution to peacebuilding. Hopefully, I will be given the opportunity to share my other encounters with you at a later date. Al Haj U Aye Lwin Al Haj U Aye Lwin serves as the chief convener for the Islamic Centre of Myanmar and is a founding member of Religions for Peace, Myanmar. He has an endur- ing interest in Sufi traditions and serves as a Kalifa, or spiritual guide in the Qadariya Aarliya Sufi order. He has authored and translated dozens of books on Islam and comparative religion and presented papers at seminars nationally and internationally. He is deeply involved in peacebuilding and conflict transformation in his native Myanmar. An educator by profession, Al Haj U Aye Lwin is currently serving as counsellor and member of the board of management at the Diplomatic School in Yangon.