Ghandi, King shared one dream

Published On: 10/12/2009

In today’s world, we hear the word terrorism all the time.

We hear it when we turn on our televisions, we hear it when we listen to the radio, and it reaches us through the Internet. Not only does it reach us constantly through the media, but as our technology progresses so rapidly, the realities of terrorism hit us closer to home, visually, in much of its violence and bloodiness.

Every great figure has their challenge to overcome, and today we have a wealth of challenges. But we also have the opportunity, through the dangers we face, to apply the wisdom passed down from Gandhi and Martin Luther King and to improve ourselves instead of complacently ignoring them so as to pass them on to our children. Therefore the philosophies of Gandhi and King are extremely relevant, and indeed their wisdom may be the only thing we have to confront our present dangers. If we can even be shadows of the people before us, we will win a better tomorrow for our children today.

As King himself said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” a statement that is extremely relevant in an interconnected world. Therefore, it may also be said that all forms of injustice, including terrorism, are a threat to all forms of justice. From this statement, we can see that no problem can be ignored. When we see pollution threaten health around the world or tearing apart ecosystems, we have a duty as members of the human race to take a stand for everyone. Recognizing the dangers we face is the first thing that such historical figures have taught us. We must look for those problems and pay attention to them because one day they will hit us closer to home.

We need to speak out when we see anything that isn’t right, no matter what the cause. Nothing that anyone today says is more relevant than this, because paying attention is the first step.

The second step is clearly action, and action requires courage. In the case of both Gandhi and King, resistance without violence was how they acted. In both cases they had dreams, and in both cases their dreams became reality. However action must go on even when you stare defeat in the face. Both of them went to jail because they refused to stop fighting the good fight. But they never used violence because they believed violence was never justified — no matter what it would never lead to a good end.

For Gandhi and King, the ends didn’t justify the means if the means were violent. They contended that violence is an end in and of itself, and spreading violence was not their goal. They went straight to the heart of the matter, by acting as examples and persuading people instead of forcing them. Their opponents who employed violence never accomplished their goals through that violence. Terrorists can use violence, but they won’t accomplish any of their goals if we don’t allow them into scaring us into submission. Their violence is useless and it contradicts Muhammad’s teaching.

Lastly, the third step for solving such problems includes not only the result of the action but also the aftermath. Even if there is no success, the problem is brought to everyone’s attention and everyone wins because someone else will probably take up the cause. So the only way you can lose is when you fail to act. And in the aftermath of success, there is no greater danger than to quit acting to combat injustice because that success might be attacked, or forgotten, and the injustice that was fought off will only return.

King preached right up to the point that he was assassinated, and Gandhi continued to advocate positions in which he believed even when the British were gone. Today, it is hard to imagine that any of the terrorists, the rich people who profit from ruining the environment or the Janjaweed militias will ever back down. The rest of the human race shouldn’t back down either in the fight for justice.

The human race is the heir to the wisdom of people like these two men, and in studying this wisdom, we can overcome our present dangers like terrorism. We must identify the problems that surround us instead of living our lives poorly with them. We must participate in government and speak out.