Universal Peace Centre
Alfred Nobel (1833 – 1896) who was born in Stockholm, Sweden, worked at his father’s arms factory as a young man. Intellectually curious, he went on to experiment with chemistry and explosives, finally developing the use of dynamite. Thanks to his acumen as an industrialist and the patents he took out on explosives, Nobel became a multimillionaire.
In 1864 there was a lethal blast in his nitroglycerine factory, in which his younger brother and several other people were killed. A French newspaper mistakenly thought it had been Alfred Nobel himself who had died and it published his obituary under the title: The Merchant of Death is Dead. The obituary said:
‘Dr Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.’
When Nobel read this, he was shocked. He began thinking about how to improve his badly damaged image and decided to leave behind his enormous fortune to fund a set of prizes named after him. Thus, in his last will, Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million Swedish kronor (about 186 million US dollars), to establish and endow the five Nobel Prizes. The Nobel Prize organization has come to be known for giving awards to the greatest achievements throughout the world in the field of peace and other disciplines.
Alfred Nobel’s plan of image building was a great success. Today the world knows him as a great promoter of peace. The story of how Alfred Nobel invented weapons which he sold to earn money – all of which tarnished his image – is relevant to the Muslims of the present day.
The Muslims of today, for some political reasons, are engaged in the same practice, but with a difference: whereas Alfred Nobel organized the trade of weapons, Muslims organized the culture of violence on the basis of modern arms. If Alfred Nobel was indirectly involved in the killing of human beings, Muslims became directly involved in this killing.
In the case of Alfred Nobel, his personal image was damaged. But in the case of the Muslims, it was far more serious. Muslims having propounded their culture of violence in the name of Islam, and then acted upon it, it was the image of Islam itself which was damaged. This age being the age of the media, the negative news of every instance of violence perpetrated by Muslims was instantly spread all over the globe. Throughout the entire world, the image of Islam became that of a religion of violence.
Alfred Nobel did not waste his time in laying the blame for his infamous reputation at the door of others, but rather took the entire blame upon himself and decided to change his image by making a unique plan for peace.
Now the time has finally come for Muslims to take a similar U-turn without any delay. Muslims must follow the commandment of God expressed in these words:
‘Believers, turn to God, every one of you, so that you may prosper.’ (24:31)
The best way to initiate an image-building process is that Muslims all over the world must establish a large institution with the name Universal Peace Centre. All the Muslim countries, organizations and Muslims with resources should become members of this centre. The Universal Peace Centre should be set up with the common support of all Muslims. It should be structured in accordance with international standards and should be completely non-political, non-communal and non-commercial. The sole purpose of this centre should be to promote peace and replace the culture of violence with the culture of peace all over the world.
The Universal Peace Centre should be set up with the common support of all Muslims. It should be structured in accordance with international standards and should be completely non-political, non-communal and non-commercial.
The Muslim community owes a debt to God—that is, Muslims have to spread the word of God to every man and woman on this earth. This task has to be carried out to the fullest extent by peaceful means. The Universal Peace Centre will be a means to fulfil this global responsibility of the Muslims. God will surely assist Muslims if they devote themselves to the task of changing the image of Islam—which, at the moment, is that of a religion of violence—to that of a religion of peace.
At present, Muslims are more than one billion in number and are spread out all over the world. All kinds of rich natural resources are available in Muslim countries. The best use of these resources would be to utilize them for the image-building of Islam, and the Universal Peace Centre should be designed to fulfil this very purpose.
