RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE.
Religious tolerance refers to the when people of a particular religion tolerate people from other religions and respect their religious ideologies and practices. (John,2000)
Tolerance should be distinguished from religious indifference, which refers to ‘taking no interest’ in religion, and including any religious differences therein. It means that one does not acknowledge people on the basis of religion. As such, they are not capable of any religious intolerance and/or tolerance.
In the recent times, perhaps in the name of democracy and globalization, there have been inter-religion forums meant to find common grounds and understanding. This has been, especially, between Christians and Muslims; at least in the mainstream. I say so because, even as there are increased grounds and efforts for understanding and tolerance, still there are deep-seated differences and misunderstandings. With terrorism being a hot topic today, Islam has been given the face of evil. Partly by those who claim they are Muslims and go on to abuse its scripture, the Quran. And partly by the non-Muslims who have taken to the assertion that all Muslims are terrorist and won’t listen for the ‘other side’ of the story.
Some Muslims, the terrorists especially, have taken to under/over-interpretation of the Quran and an overzealous, blind following of those over-interpretations. As a consequence, most people have decided that Islam is a religion that embraces terrorism and summed up all Muslims as terrorists. He media and the movies, unfortunately, have helped this assumption. (Logan,2002)
Last year, in the U.S, there was a battle over the construction of a mosque a short distance from the twin towers, the targets of 9/11. Also, a Florida pastor, Terry Jones swore to burn the Quran on the 9th of September.
References
Logan,D. (2002).A history of the church in the Middle Ages .New York:Routledge
John, C.(2000), Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England, 1558-1689. London:Longman Publishing Group
