Washington: Peace activists and lawmakers gathered in Washington to highlight Mahatma Gandhi's path of non-violence as an effective weapon of counter terrorism.
"We have to stop this madness and the only way is to adopt non-violence," said Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi, at a rally marking the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks which left more than 2,700 people dead.
"Let us follow the path Gandhi showed us 100 years ago on this very a path of non-violence to right wrongs," said 72-year-old Arun Gandhi at the rally at the historic Lincoln Memorial grounds in Washington.
Monday's rally at Washington also coincided with Gandhiji's first non-violence campaign against racial discrimination in South Africa.
Democratic law maker from the House of Representatives, John Lewis, took the opportunity to push for non-violence as an instrument and mechanism of foreign policy and called on nations "to push for peace and lay down their tools and instruments of violence and war".
A fervent critic of US President George W Bush Lewis argued that violence is "obsolete as a tool of our foreign policy".
Law maker from Maryland Chris Van Hollen recalled Gandhi confronting injustice "head on" through non violence. The Democratic law maker had lived and studied in India when his father was a foreign service officer.
The rally at the Lincoln Memorial was preceded by a conference titled " Non-Violence in an age of terrorism", both of which were organised by the Tennessee-based Gandhi Institute which is pushing for a curriculum in public schools in the United States and Canada on non-violence.
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