I believe that no religion on earth supports terrorism or unjust killings...



According to Mahatma Gandhi




"GANDHI’S THEORY


Gandhism is a body of ideas and principles that describes the inspiration, vision and the life work of Mohandas Gandhi.



It is particularly associated with his contributions to the idea of nonviolent resistance, sometimes also called civil resistance. The two pillars of "Gandhism" were truth and non-violence.



However, Gandhi did not approve of 'Gandhism', as he explained:


"After long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that all religions are true all religions have some error in them; all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own close relatives. My own veneration for other faiths is the same as that for my own faith; therefore no thought of conversion is possible.



Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was truth "satya", non-violence "ahimsa" and the Golden Rule”.
"Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such.



Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran?



As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty"



.
He then went on to say:



"As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over riding morality.












Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side".







Gandhi was critical of the hypocrisy in organised religion, rather than the principles on which they were based.
Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:





"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew".

My point is, DO NOT BLAME RELIGION FOR MAN DEVILISH OR EVIL ACT.. BLAME MAN FOR MAN'S MISTAKES..

Let's stop accepting trash and lies from media.. If media refuses to change, let's change ourselves...




whenever you see or hear media or anybody blaming any religion on people devilish act.. STAND FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS AND CORRECT THEM FROM SUCH WRONG IMPRESSION MEDIA HAS BEEN FEEDING THEM

media be like

Peace journalism was developed by Johan Galtung.





A Norwegian scholar in 1970. Also known as Galtung`s Peace Journalism initiatives it was propounded to tackle the traditional journalism penchant for promoting conflict and war.






He argued that by taking an advocacy, interpretative approach, the peace journalist concentrates on stories that highlights peace initiatives; tone down ethnic and religious differences, prevent further conflict, focus on the structure of society; and promote conflict resolution, reconstruction and reconciliation, Ozohu-Suleiman (2013).Peace journalism is a kind of journalism that focuses on restoration of peace rather than promoting violence.




It is a brand of journalism that gives recognition to people who condemn violence. Howard (2003), states thata peace journalist applies conflict analysis and searches for new voices and ideas about the conflict. A peace journalist takes no side but is engaged in the search for solutions as well as chooses his/her words carefully.



Peace journalism also abhors only reporting what divides the sides in conflict as well as words like terrorist, extremist or fanatic. These languages portray journalists as taking sides and making the other side seem impossible to negotiate with, which directly or indirectly prolongs the conflict. In this regard, a journalist that is conflict sensitive will identify and label people what they call themselves either before the emergence of the conflict or during the conflict.



2.14 RELEVANCE OF GANDHI TO THE SOCIETY


Gandhi's concepts which advocate for change of attitudes and behaviors‟ in the coverage and framing of conflicts/war and truth and rationalty should be adopted in this study to serve as reference point for media houses in the World.



According to Gandhi, "As soon as we lose the moral basis,we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion overriding morality.


Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontent and claim to have God on his side".





Media should advocate moral decadence as human fault not religious fault. A good example is terrorism organization acclaimed to be of Islam, and also the KKK terrorism organization acclaimed to Christianity, media should have counter the claims of those terrorism organizations instead of fueling the conflicts within religious issues.



And other stake holders to adopting a paradigm shift of creating the atmosphere for peace instead of focusing on war and conflict.



Researchers and experienced journalists have spent time suggesting how the media might shift from war to peace correspondence in covering conflicts.



While the suggestion is right step in the right direction, the assumption of this study is that media can create the needed atmosphere for peace and tolerance through having programmes on peace without waiting for conflict to erupt before engaging in peace building.

cc: OAM4J

This research give the following recommendations:

As the fourth pillar of democracy, the media should hold the government accountable for ensuring religious freedom and for protecting the rights of religious communities, including their right to build places of worship and to practice their faith.

Media outlets can at least help reduce prevailing ignorance between religious communities, by reporting more about the lives and the beliefs of the different communities they serve. Ignorance, the chief source of mutual suspicion and intolerance, allows extremist elements in all religions to exploit the fear.


Media outlets need to build their own tradition of reporting better about the faiths and the religious communities in their respective societies, avoid malicious stereotyping and perpetuating prejudices that one group has about the other.

The media needs to give more space to the voices of moderation that speak of peace and less to the fear-mongering radical and extremist groups.

In societies where people build their lives around observation of religious rituals, as in Nigeria, the media must do a better job in reflecting this reality and not only report about religion when there are tensions or conflicts.

The media would do a much better job in covering society if newsroom staff reflected as much as possible the ethnical, racial and religious diversity.

Finally, by practicing good journalism, the media would help to build better understanding between religious communities. It can encourage religious communities to collaborate and work together in addressing common challenges.

Source :



This Research Topic was carried out by Aliu Saheed Adeshina with Matric Number 13/MCH/1232, Osun State Polytechnic Iree.