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New Delhi:
A two-day International
seminar on “Just Peace: A Common Universal Discourse” was organized
by the Islamic World Peace Forum (Iran), Iran Cultural House (New
Delhi), and Indo-Iran Society, (New Delhi) here on April 11-12.
There were many speakers both from India and abroad who expressed
their views in the academic sessions which started in the India
International Centre after the inaugural session was held in the JNU
auditorium.
Dr. John Dayal and Dominic Emmanuel focused on the teachings of
Prophet Jesus (PBUH) for peace. Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer said that
Islamic teachings are against terrorism and cruelty. There were some
Iranian scholars from Iran’s think tanks and Tehran University. Amb.
S. R. Tabatabaei Shafiei, Deputy Secretary-General of the
Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization, New Delhi, Prof.
Chaiyan Rajchagool (Thailand), Dr. K. N. Islam (Bangladesh), Prof.
Hasbi Amiruddin (Indonesia) and many others.
Dr. Arshi Khan, a political commentator on West Asian politics and
Associate Professor of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University,
India, speaking on the second day made a critical analysis of the
policies and principles of Western countries towards West Asia in
the seminar.
The topic of Dr. Arshi Khan’s paper was “Situating Just Peace in the
Context of Western Liberal States’ Policies towards Occupied
Palestinian Territories”.
Dr. Khan defined peace as a kind of ‘Locke an State of Nature’ but
not Rousseau’s idyllic happiness which is the outcome of a process
accelerated by different actors at various levels. Religious school
has focused on the organic aspect of peace whereas the secular
thoughts have stressed on liberal principles, institutions and
values. In this respect, modern states were created to serve the
cause of peace. At the international level, the League of Nations
and the United Nations were established to develop democratic
pattern of relations among national players.
Dr. Khan said that there are evidences of harsh punishments for
wrong-doers and invasions and humanitarian interventions for the
sake of international peace but the West has abstained from taking
any such measures against Israel which is a fit case for
Nuremberg-type of trial and Belgrade-type of American bombings. He
lamented that Israel is the only entity which violated over 60
resolutions of the UN Security Council, the UN Charter, ICCPR,
ICESCR and Geneva Conventions. Israel is the only one in the whole
West Asian region which has the possession of over 200
thermo-nuclear weapons. It has neither signed NPT nor allowed
weapons inspection despite the UNSC resolution 687 of 1991 which
call for West Asia free from Nuclear weapons and WMD.
He said that Israel’s birth is unlawful as it was created by
violating the UN partition plan of November 1947. It has a long
record of uprooting the Palestinians numbering about 7 million
refugees, occupying all their territories in 1967, attacking
Palestinians, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. He said that after Oslo and
Madrid accords, Israel accelerated illegal Jewish settlements and
created illegal Israeli Wall in Palestinian lands. Even now the
Palestinians are being attacked and their homes demolished for
Hewish settlers in East Jerusalem.
Looking into all these, Dr. Khan said that the recent UN report has
also accused Israel of war crimes and crime against humanity. He
made specifically very clear that as all options have been exhausted
against Israel without any achievement, the only option left with
the world community are two. One is the harsh Economic and military
sanctions against Israel and the other is humanitarian interventions
to destroy the military infrastructures of Israel under Chapter VII
of the UN Charter to save the region. Lastly he said that Israel
should be allowed to stand above the law as it is not acceptable to
the world community.
Meanwhile, earlier in his welcome address, the Cultural Counsellor,
Dr. Karim Najafi outlined the main purpose of the international
seminar for securing just peace in this volatile world.
The inaugural address was made by the Ambassador of the Islamic
Republic of Iran, Syed Mahdi Nabizadeh in which he lamented on the
policy of arrogant powers talking peace and ‘imposing aggression’.
He also focused on the need of dialogue among different cultures and
religions.
A leading personality from Iran, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri, in
his presidential remarks, stressed on the Islamic values and
principles for securing peace for the benefit of human kind . Prof.
Mushir-ul-Hasan made his remarks over Indo-Iran relations.
Chief Minister of Delhi, Mrs. Sheila Dikshit was honoured with the
famous Darashukoh Award for Peace. She delightfully expressed her
appreciation for this honour and made a speech on the need for
tolerance and appreciation for each other. Prof. Suranjan Das,
Vice-Chancellor of Kolkata University, was the guest of honour who
spoke on Indo-Iran relations.
(pervezbari@eth.net)
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