By Jeelani Khan, IOL South East Asia Correspondent

New Delhi, December 4 (IslamOnline) - “A religion whose literal meaning is aman-o-amaan (peace and harmony) can only give the message of goodwill, harmony and peace,” scholars and academics put across this view unanimously at a seminar held in New Delhi on Tuesday, December 3.

The seminar, entitled “Islam: The Religion of Peace”, was organized by the department of Arabic in Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia, a central university with an Islamic character.

Noted political scientist Prof. ZA Nizami read his touching Urdu poetic essay in which he elaborated aspects of peace, love and mercy in Islam.

Other speakers included Prof Syed Mohammd Ijtiba Nadwi, Prof Iqbal A Ansari, Prof Altaf Azmi, Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan and vice-chancellor (rector) of Jamia Millia Islamia, Syed Shahid Hasan Mehdi.

Quoting the Qur'an and Hadith to drive his point home, Prof Nadwi said, “Islam is the only religion which takes into account the peace of the individual as well as that of the whole world.” “ If you kill an innocent, no matter to which religion you belong, you have killed all human beings,” he said referring to the holy Quran.

Blaming the Muslim Ummah, Prof Nadwi said, “It is we who are solely responsible for the linking of Islam with terrorism,” because Muslims have failed to spread the massage of Islam in its true perspective.

Prof Iqbal A Ansari, a noted human rights activist who has written a number of books on human rights, elaborated the teachings and message of Islam and referred to examples of the Prophet's life that show his preference for peace and accommodation and laid down strict rules for warfare which are now incorporated in the Geneva conventions.

Prof Ansari concentrated on the human rights perspective of Islam and said, “It is only Islam which orders us to behave nicely even with the enemies.” He added, “jihad (holy war) is allowed in Islam, but only in an extreme situation - when there is a real threat to this religion or to the lives of its followers.”

Prof Altaf Azmi of Jamia Hamdard lashed out at those who had been projecting Islam as a religion of terrorists. He said emphatically, “Yes, Islam permits jihad, but only as a last measure.”

“There is no religion which can be more humane and peaceful than Islam,” said Prof Azmi, adding “we accept that the Qur'an mentions jihad, while the followers of other religions don’t own up their misdeeds and the result is that Islam has been projected as a religion spreading terrorism.”

On the other hand, Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, editor of The Milli Gazette, in his speech pointed out that Islam emphasized on the principle of conciliation (sulah) in human relations which made it crystal clear that there is no place for terrorism in this religion.

Khan quoted a number of Qur'anic verses to emphasize that Islam categorically prohibits aggression and violence in human relations.

He conceded that there is tiny Muslim minority which has resorted to terrorism during the last three decades but the roots of this violence do not lie in Islam and the Qur'an but in the long, humiliating experience of colonialism and neo-colonialism, especially the usurpation of Palestine and the continuous rape and plunder of Muslim societies with western help.

In his presidential speech, Syed Shahid Hasan Mehdi informed the seminar that his university is in the process of establishing a Center for Peace Studies. He hoped that the project will be completed in the last quarter of the year 2003.

He added that the faculty of education in his university had been working on the manual of peace education released by the UN in order to incorporate it in the university curriculum.