And that fact was brought home in 1979 when the staff of the American embassy in, Iran was taken and held hostage for over a year by a revolutionary government led by a Muslim religious leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Perhaps one of the most difficult questions to arise out of a study of the Holocaust is the question of when to take up arms and fight. Many other Jews made a choice for nonviolence. They died believing their God would right the evil that was being done. The choice was not only whether or not to fight, but also how to fight.
Many people believe that nonviolence is the only real answer.
Violence can only lead to total war, they say, and total war may mean the destruction of humankind. As the attention of the world focused on his hunger strikes, Gandhi believed, his opponents would be forced to listen to him. Thus, Gandhi taught that suffering should never be inflicted upon the enemy, it should be used upon one s self. Gandhi's nonviolent resistance was very successful. He first used it when the South African government passed anti-Indian laws.