Can Forgiveness Lead to World Peace?

My story, partially told in this great video interview by my friend Vanessa, is a powerful one that changes many lives and has led me to a new development on my path toward peace. 30 years ago, my life came to a brutal end. My only son, Tariq, an aspiring 20-year-old college student working as a pizza delivery person while attending SDSU, was lured to a bogus address by a youth gang, and in a gang initiation a 14-year-old shot and killed him. There is nothing more complex than losing a child – it never leaves you. There has not been a day when I haven’t thought of Tariq several times. It was the darkest night of my soul. I am certain that as you read these lines you may also recall your dark night of the soul.

Every saint has suffered the dark night of the soul.?I believe that we, at some point in our lives, have to experience these painful events. This is not a revelation. What is a revelation is that at the point of deep trauma, there is a spark of clarity. We see this in saints and luminaries, but this knowledge is not mainstream.?

The spark of clarity in my tragedy is that I saw that there were victims on both ends of the gun. I saw that 14-year-old Tony was not the enemy but the societal forces that force many of our young souls to fall through the cracks and choose lives of violence, crime, gangs, drugs, and weapons are the real culprits. In the USA, we lose a young soul like Tariq every hour – in the richest nation in the world. This is an American phenomenon – it does not happen in other first-world countries. It does not need to happen here either.?The question I asked in the wake of my loss, is "How did we Americans create a society where children kill children?"?

This inquiry and insight led me to choose to forgive Tony and start a nonprofit foundation, the Tariq Khamisa Foundation to honor my slain son. I invited his grandfather and guardian, Ples Felix, to join me in this work to save the lives of children, empower the right choices, and teach nonviolence. I met Tony at 19 and developed a relationship with him until he was released from prison at 39. I advocated for his release at his successful parole hearing. He is 43 years old now and volunteers for TKF as his grandfather and I have for the last 3 decades. Tony serves on the board of TKF alongside my daughter, Tasreen, who is the ED for TKF. Their relationship is akin to being siblings.?We often speak together at schools teaching accountability, empathy, compassion, forgiveness, and peace-building. Our unification despite the odds deeply exemplifies the power of forgiveness to foster peace. TKF has reached over 2M youth in this time and one thing we have learned from the students is that they get and espouse forgiveness. It has helped many thrive!

Based on these many decades of service and teaching forgiveness, the question I ask now is, Can Forgiveness Lead to World Peace? Read below to learn more about how we can achieve this together.

“Can forgiveness lead to world peace?” Forgiveness has helped me and my family get to peace. So, my answer to this question above is a resounding "YES!" The challenge is how we make forgiveness mainstream when it is so misunderstood and complex -- and undertaught as a skillset and a tool to move through difficult emotions. 3 years ago, with 6 volunteers and 30 graduate students, we began our research. We still meet every two weeks, detailing our notes and documenting our research and ideas on forgiveness statistics, approaches, programs, organizations, and everything related to tracing the benefits of embodying forgiveness.

We learned that more than 250 national and international organizations are working for world peace, including the UN (where I spoke to the General Assembly on the "High-Level Forum on the Culture of Peace.") Several committed organizations are promoting forgiveness, conflict resolution, nonviolence, restorative justice, and peacebuilding. I have dedicated my life over the last 30 years in this field and am encouraged to see the support I have received from many of these organizations to unify with the dream of having our world at peace.

On March 6th, 2024, which would have been Tariq’s 50th birthday, I launched another nonprofit organization Peace Through Forgiveness (PTF) PeacethruForgiveness.org to mainstream forgiveness as a means to achieve peace.?The other startling fact in our research we discovered is that:

Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change in public policy. Learn more here.

This was exciting data, having studied the successful nonviolent movements of Gandhi, MLK, Mandela, and more recently, the Black Lives Matter movement, all of which have indeed spawned major shifts in public policy and altered our world. The tipping point to elicit change and mainstream adoption is 3.5% - that equates to 300M in the world and 10.5M people in the USA. Certainly, this is a large number but is achievable with the advent of the Internet.

The vision is clear: world peace. The mission is clear: make forgiveness mainstream to 300M worldwide. Since launching PTF on March 6th, we have already hosted 3 events and are planning a larger event on September 26th. (See flyer images to learn more). At our 3rd event, I invited 14 national and international organizations, working in this niche, to come together and they all enthusiastically showed up. September 21, 2024, is the International Day of Peace, and September 27, 2024, is the International Day of Forgiveness. Some of our partners are speaking at our event on September 26, and others are also doing regional events in their jurisdiction between these two dates as bookends to mainstream forgiveness as a means to achieve world peace. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers during these days.

You can get more details on the PTF website. As we expand, PTF's 2025 goal is to garner the support of the 250 organizations that are currently working in this space and the wider community. My vision for the 2025 International Day of Forgiveness (9/27/25) is to have an international event in the spirit of Lionel Ritchie’s “We Are the World.” So, what is the call to action? How can you first create peace within yourself so that you can be part of this important movement with us?

First, ask who the equivalent of "Tony" is in your life, and can you espouse forgiveness as a means to create peace within you and your family?

Secondly, become an ambassador to this vision as I believe we all want world peace. This may seem like a moonshot of where the world currently is mired with wars and violence. However – we must start somewhere. Let us take a lesson from Chiara Lubich who founded Focolare against the backdrop of the horrors of World War II. Amidst this, Chiara discovered the life-giving alternative: God, who is Love. Today, The Focolare Movement?operates in more than 180 nations and has over 140,440 members and more than 4M sympathizers. We cannot sit back and do nothing. This does not feel right to me as current political conversations abound about another civil war or WW III. We need to urgently engage -- and engage fully!

Thirdly, while we have a clear vision and mission, we do not know how to get to the 300M people and mainstream forgiveness as a lifestyle practice. If you have special skills in social media, AI, PR, marketing, and event planning and coordination -- we need your help!?Please reply to this email.

Lastly, volunteer, donate, and spread the mission and opportunity to inspire peace through forgiveness - together we can get there!?Our children and grandchildren will remember that we tried to leave them a better peaceful world! It is our duty and their right. I have given 3 decades to this cause as a volunteer and promise to continue to do so for the rest of my life. I know forgiveness leads to peace – how do I know that? Because I am at peace after experiencing one of the worst scenarios imaginable. A million thanks for your leadership for the greater good as you join us in the above-mentioned ways.?

Sending love, light, peace, and many blessings.

~Azim Khamisa