Start a New Conversation

My commitment in life is and has for many years, been that each human being gets to live their lives in peace – peace for the individual, peace for the family, peace within neighbourhoods and peace for the world.  Recently I have found myself dealing with the absence of peace in the world.

 

As a practising Muslim, I am upset at the ease with which our youngsters are brainwashed into thinking they can go abroad and fight in order to become heroes without a full education of what they are committing to. They don’t seem to understand that ‘Islam’ means ‘Peace’.  On the other hand, I am upset by the automatic reaction of some people in the UK – some of whom tar all Muslims with the same brush.  I am also upset by the amount of conversation on the News media that propagates all of this.  Do they not understand that talking about it keeps it alive and makes it a bigger problem for our society?

 

My husband and I went to Patisserie Valerie in Brent Cross the other day to have some cake and tea.  I was dressed in my usual casual western clothes with a batik square around my head.  The looks I got from some of the Jewish patrons there really scared me.   I could see them look at me and I could hear them whisper to each other.  I guess they believed I could not hear them and that I was not aware of what they were saying.

 

Really, it is time to start a new conversation.  A conversation about what is right in the world and create opportunities for these youngsters that inspire them and give them a future to look forward to.  It is time that people of different faiths and cultures get to know about other faiths and cultures than their own  – understand what they are dealing with and not assume that the whole world is against them – whether that faith be Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist…whether that culture be British, Pakistani, Israeli or Indian.

 

Thank God for organisations like the Little Big Peace Event that create a new conversation in the world to go beyond our prior assumptions and beliefs.

 

Let’s turn this ocean liner around and point it in the direction ‘Peace.’

 

Ishreen Bradley is an award-winning Executive Coach and Founding Director of Bizas Coaching & Consulting Ltd.  Her passion is to support business leaders and senior women to perform at their best with grace and ease.  www.ishreenbradley.com