"What Is...?" Wednesday

I read a book for Harper One recently and reviewed it last Monday. It was a good book too but I lost a friend of eight years and it broke my heart...Why? Because I chose to be tolerant and see the world of Islam through the Prophet Muhammad's eyes by reading this book. Sadly, that wasn't the only thing that happened, I got angry tweets about it on Twitter as well because the author was disliked so much... Am I going to stop reading...NO...am I going to stop reviewing...NO. I always expected to get crap for being a Pagan, I however, did not expect crap for being tolerant and understanding. So here's today's "What Is Wednesday" post....


Religious Intolerance

Religious intolerance is intolerance against another's religious beliefs or practices.

The mere statement on the part of a religion that its own beliefs and practices are correct and any contrary beliefs incorrect does not in itself constitute intolerance (i.e., ideological intolerance). There are many cases throughout history of established religions tolerating other practices. Religious intolerance, rather, is when a group (e.g., a society, religious group, non-religious group) specifically refuses to tolerate practices, persons or beliefs on religious grounds (i.e., intolerance in practice).

Wikipedia

It looks like intolerance is the new trend and a more horrible trend for the world's future can hardly be imagined. How might this poisonous trend be stopped? Fear and suspicion are powerful forces, but we have resources to combat them: clear consistent thinking; specific  principles based on equal respect for human dignity and understanding.

Because intolerance is  caused by fear, we also need to confront it on the emotional level, using everything we know about the workings of emotions such as fear, sympathy, disgust, and respect. One thing we know is that demonization of "the other" is far easier if people know nothing much about this "other," and have never been encouraged to think what the world looks like from that different viewpoint. In order to move beyond a climate of fear, then, we need more than good principles: we need the cultivation of sympathy, and therefore we need approaches through education and understanding, not just through argument and hatred.