NEW DELHI, INDIA, January 17, 2008: In December last year, All India Khwaja Gharib Nawaz Council, a Sufi organisation, led a peace march to Parliament, holding placards that read: “Islam says killing of one innocent is killing of humanity. Sufi Corridor can play an important role in establishing peace and unity.” Despite the overly idealistic veneer, it marks an important milestone in the fight against all venues of terrorism. The Sufis in India are low profile but number close to 10 million and their religious centers are spread across the country. The movement to create a Sufi Corridor of peace is therefore a nationwide movement.
The objective of the movement is to connect all Sufi centres with a view to uniting people against terrorism and try and prevent attacks at places sacred to both Hindus and Muslims. Sufism is based on the principle that “all people are the children of God on earth”. Though most of orthodox schools of thought have rejected Sufism, their message and following has grown.
This is, in fact, the first-ever attempt to create a kind of civic organization outside the boundaries of the political establishment to fight terrorism.