“Peace is a dangerous game”, a Northern Ireland diplomat based in Vienna who was involved in his country’s Good Friday Agreement once told me. He also said that I had to ignore discouraging comments when people tried to distract me from my path to peace. I was reminded of this advice after Peace Museum Vienna conducted its first Europe Peace Heroes Walk on 8 October.
As director, I helped Peace Museum Vienna organize a Peace Heroes Walk in Vienna to educate and inspire the public about peace through the lives of different peace heroes, with the intention to also increase peace literacy. The most important form of peace literacy by far is our shared humanity. We need to realize we are all humans and that no borders should divide us.
The Peace Heroes Walk intended to bring people from different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds together, and act as a platform to connect people. The walkers had a chance to build bridges and learn about peace heroes from other lands and cultures. The participants were not allowed to take a position on current conflicts or promote any agenda other than a peace agenda. It was neither a march nor a demonstration but just a nonviolent form of action to raise awareness about peace.
At certain points during the walk, some participants raised their respective national flags and chanted “long live…”. I tried to prohibit this because the goal was to walk for peace and inspire a new generation of peace leaders. The walk would have moved against our will had I not intervened. I was offended by a number of comments I received after the walk but none of these discouraged or distracted me.
I was called a racist for not allowing national flags. We at PMV are neither against nor in favor of anyone or any country. PMV’s main mission is to inspire and educate people through the lives of people who accepted the risk to promote peace either at the international arena-level or in their local communities. I think national boundaries separate humanity and keep us apart. The national flags could be carried and country names be chanted had the peace heroes walk been for national or regional action.
I am getting so many labels by individuals and some institutions as being ‘racist,’ working against Pakistan’s interests, promoting communism, anti-Pashtuns and being part of the Afghanistan enlightenment movement. I did not imagine I would get so many labels and accusations from Peace Heroes Walk Vienna walkers and from outside due to my involvement in organizing a peace hero walk on 8 October 2016.
“You are working against Pakistan and Pakistan’s interests,” expressed some Pakistani diplomats in Vienna, who sent a message through their emissary. I was truly surprised to hear that my involvement to organize a peace hero walk in Vienna created so much discussion, even among diplomats. I had always thought that embassies were not interested in PMV’s work. The posters of a few Peace Heroes at PMV and along Blutgasse, including Malala Yusufzai, the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Bacha Khan, known as Frontier Gandhi due to his nonviolent campaign against British-ruled India before India’s partition, and the presence of a female human rights activist, Asma Jahangir, angered the Pakistani embassy in Vienna.
Peace Museum Vienna has helped me transform as a person who had a tendency towards violence and revenge to become a more peaceful character.
Written By: Dr. Ali Ahmad