If you had to name three, which ones would come to mind as the best examples?
I am sick and tired of being asked “So you think not all Muslims are terrorists, huh? Name three”, and only being able to say, “Well, I’m pretty sure quite a lot of them, really.”
(Not that expect it to change his mind or anything, it’s more for myself so I have something to say).
The first one, off the top of my head would be the current Aga Khan, from Wikipedia:
Nafewz Assaily for a contemporary voice preaching non-violence. Reaching back slightly Ghaffar Khan in India ( a close associate of Gandhi ) and in Africa the Senegalese mystic Amadou Bamba, founder of the Muridiyya Sufi order, would also qualify.
However in general genuine pacifism is relatively much rarer in Islam compared to other Abrahamic faiths. It was a religion incubated in conflict and was ( and generally is ) self-consciously militant. Defensive violence at the very least seems to be mandated in the defense of religious liberties, unless one takes a very esoteric view ( as a few Muslims, particularly Sufi mystics like Bamba above, have ) or a highly individualistic one ( less of a stretch ). Tolerance on the other hand, at one level or another, also appears to be mandated. That is much easier to find, but of course folks can argue endlessly about degrees and definitions of tolerance :).