TYSON EVANS Sheikh Abdoulaye Dieye
(left) is translated by Rugayyah Hasan Miyan
(center) at a nonviolence meeting held by Rabbi Chaim
Seidler-Feller (right).
By Wendy Su
Daily Bruin Contributor
In times of war and religious struggle throughout the world,
leaders from the Islamic and Jewish faith met Wednesday afternoon
at UCLA to discuss political and spiritual nonviolence.
Sheikh Abdoulaye Dieye, a Sufi mystic, and Rabbi Chaim
Seidler-Feller emphasized the idea that all religions are at a
oneness with God in “The Spirit of Nonviolence in Islamic
Tradition.”
The conversation began and ended by chanting the name of God in
Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew, emphasizing the message of oneness
brought by Dieye and Seidler-Feller.
Through a translator, Dieye referred to the conflict between
Palestine and Israel as well as the events of Sept. 11.
“In our times, we are in great need of peace and
understanding,” he said.
Seidler-Feller, who has been director of the Hillel Council at
UCLA for 27 years, said about the Palestine-Israeli conflict:
“It is sad that the people that are most outspoken and
against reconciliation are the religious leaders.”
Among the Israelis and the Palestinians, “the agents of
peace” will be found, and they will end the conflict, Dieye
said.
“We need to believe that we can change. We must have the
will,” he said.
During the two-and-a-half hour question-and-answer period, Dieye
said various stages of nonviolence exist and used the example of
Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
These two men were nonviolent but were violently killed because
their nonviolent beliefs were “mind-based,” he
said.
Another form of nonviolence is “divine-based,” Dieye
said.
This form of nonviolence is difficult to achieve, but if
achieved, can protect the believer from violence, he said.
This belief brings together understanding, compassion and
sacrifice, he added.
In previous times in Africa, when a holy man wanted to test the
divine-based nonviolence of a man, the latter would be taken into
the forest, Dieye said.
If one is truly nonviolent, one would not harm any insects on
the ground, he said.
If the man killed a mosquito ““ which the forests were full
of ““ then he had not achieved the divine stage of
nonviolence.
Dieye believes that to end violence, society must go and find,
within the two groups in conflict, those that have reached the
divine-state of nonviolence.
He believes that gathering them in prayer will begin the end of
the conflict.
“Religious and holy men are better than political leaders
in this religious conflict,” he said.
Dieye is in Los Angeles on a visit from his home of Senegal as
part of the national “Season for nonviolence”
Campaign.
Born to Sufi leaders, he started his Koranic studies at age
six.
Later, Dieye attended a technical college and obtained a degree
in landscape architecture in France.
He was elected deputy mayor of his hometown in 1996.
He served as a member of Senegal’s parliament and ran as a
presidential candidate in February 2000.
“If more people had an approach like his, the world would
be a better place,” said Gideon Estes, a third-year Jewish
studies student. “(Dieye) brings a very powerful
message.”
“The Season of Nonviolence” ““ which begins
Jan. 30 on the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi’s death, and ends
April 4 on the memorial of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death
““ has occurred every year since 1998.
The conversation was hosted by the Hillel Jewish Student Center
and the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies.