Our speaker on February 6th was Rotary Peace Scholarship recipient Rizwan who is studying for a Master of Peace and Conflict Studies at UW-Conrad Grebel. Rizwan was joined by Ernie Ginzler and two faculty members Jennifer Ball and Sherri Sutherland.
Rizwan is an individual that is very motivated to make a difference in the world. He is a Christian peace activist from Pakistan that has been directly subjected to targeted violence as a result of religious intolerance. His passion in this field has its roots to an incident of his childhood that affected him and his family that convinced him to make peace his life's work.
When Rizwan was in 3rd grade, his family lived in a predominantly Christian village of approximately 15-20,000 residents named Shantinagar (land of peace). In early February 1997, a violent militant Muslim mob of estimated 30,000+ formed outside the community. On February 6th, the mob entered the community and started ransacking. With very little warning, Rizwan and his family were suddenly forced from their home and into hiding by the mob and was able to take almost no personal posessions. The mob destroyed most of the village (75-80%) including Christian homes, schools, churches. Rizwan, while hiding at a neighbours house in fear of their lives personally witnessed the burning of his family home and business. After a long time, the military arrived and the mob disbursed. His family was forced to rebuild their lives basically from scratch.
This event brought peace into prominence for Rizwan as he continuously asked himself, "why me" and "why isn't anyone taking this seriously". Further incidents in his life solidified this commitment to peace as he was continually treated with a lack of respect and as if he was untouchable/unwelcome by others of different religious faiths within his community. He was continuously threatened with reprisal for going against Muslim traditions and norms. When in High School, his parents asked him to focus his education on peace which relieved Rizwan as he thought they may want him to study engineering. He decided that he could do something to promote peace and this became his full time endeavor.
The program of study that Rizwan is in at UW is the first graduate program of its type in Canada. Ernie Ginzler discussed this program as being a good plan B for the Cluster's plan to establish a Rotary Peace Centre in Waterloo. For information on this UW-Conrad Grebel program please see Master in Peace and Conflict.
Rizwan has a mission: To promote tolerance and harmony; Promote a respect of Diversity; Protection of human rights in Pakistan.
How: Use creative arts; Conduct capacity building sessions; Conduct commitment circles; Use theater to share the message; Conduct road campaigns: Promote media advocacy.
Why Conrad Grebel: To learn peace sustainability skills; To establish a Peace Resource Centre in Pakistan
As the day of this presentation to our club was the anniversary date of his life changing incident, Rizwan was understandably emotional as this is the first time that he was away from home on this anniversary.
Rizwan is definitely trying to Make a Difference!