The global media has been cautioned against falling victim of governments which resolve to negative propaganda demonizing people struggling for world peace.
More than 50 academicians, Muslim and Christian leaders, technocrats, senior citizens and artists meeting in Dar es Salaam for a talk and discussion on a book titled Fethullah Gulen – why a Muslim scholar in Pennsylvania matters to the world, came to a consensus that the media should, instead, engage critical thinking.
Responding to questions from the floor after giving the gist of the book, the author, Dr. Jon Pahl said that taking Fethullah Gulen for a violent person bent on achieving personal gains from religion and creating an alternative power in Turkey amounted to obscuring his authenticity. He said to understand him politically was also to distort his integrity.
He reminded the audience of one of the God’s Ten Commandments calling on humans to refrain bearing false witness. “We lie … slander our neighbour.”
Contributing to the discussion, Sheikh Ismail Mohammed Salim, called on world leaders to desist from demonizing the good people of the likes of Gulen, who contribute a lot to world peace.
He called for people’s recognition of the contribution of faith to world peace noting that different political systems have come and gone over centuries while religions remain a millennia issue.
Participants in the occasion hosted by the Kilimanjaro Dialogue Institute also called for the translation of the book in other languages, Kiswahili in particular, and producing a children’s version.
