Religious Intolerance
Religious Intolerance, is when a group (e.g., a society, religious group, non-religious group) specifically refuses to tolerate practices, persons or beliefs on religious grounds. This is an unwillingness to accept different religious beliefs. Refusing to acknowledge and support the right of individuals to have their own beliefs and related legitimate practices. Also, the unwillingness to have one’s own beliefs and related practices critically evaluated. Religious intolerance is a divider of nations, the harbinger of war, and breeds ill will, animosity and contempt. It sets neighbor against neighbor by creating beliefs that are untrue. Religious intolerance has caused devastating results across the world. Religious intolerance is a results of the mistrust that occurs between people belonging to different religions. It is this mistrust that then leads to clashes and in some instances killing of people including the innocent. Religious intolerance is an attitude spawned by fanaticism.
The following do not constitute religious intolerance:
- Exercising the right to challenge a religion’s claims (e.g. regarding alleged compatibility with, or superiority over, other religious beliefs)
- Condemning and disallowing illegal practices
- Rejecting a movement’s claim to be a ”religion” when there is sufficient evidence showing religion is used as a cover
The following are considered as exhibiting Religious Intolerance
- Spreading misinformation about a group’s beliefs or practices even though the inaccuracy of that information could have been easily checked and corrected;
- Spreading hatred about an entire group; e.g. stating or implying that all members of a group are evil, behave immorally, commit criminal acts, etc.;
- Ridiculing and belittling an entire faith group for their sincerely held beliefs and practices;
- Attempting to force religious beliefs and practices on others against their will;
- Restricting human rights of members of an identifiable religious group;
- Devaluing other faiths as worthless or evil.
- Inhibiting the freedom of a person to change their religion.
Effects Of Religious Intolerance
- Religious intolerance can lead to conflict,crisis and war
- It also leads to loss of life and destruction of property
- It slows down or prevents growth in the society
- It prevents peaceful co-existence
- It also creates enmity and lack of co-operation
- It leads to segregation and social discrimination
Causes of Religious Intolerance
Fear: People often fear groups that they do not understand. Fear of “the other” can easily lead to discrimination, rejection, denigration, hatred, etc.
Attitude of exclusivity: Most religions teach that they alone are the sole true religion and that they uniquely possess the only true knowledge of god. This implies that followers of other religions are in error, and are worshiping a false god. Some faith groups even teach that followers of other religions worship Satan or demons.
Conflict of science and religion: Most religions’ holy books were written in a pre-scientific era. For example, the Christian Bible, literally interpreted, discusses an earth-centered universe created less than 10,000 years ago. The Bible contains many fear-based passages in which storms, tsunamis, floods and other natural disasters are sent by God to punish humans. Even though weather, earthquakes, comets, eclipses, planetary motion, etc. are now known to be natural phenomena subjected to natural forces, the same fear of God’s punishment is felt by some people.
Lack of accurate knowledge: Many public schools do not teach even the rudiments of world religions, perhaps because of a misunderstanding of the principle of separation of church and state, or out of fear for negative reactions by parents. Faith groups generally do not include meaningful studies of other religions in their youth education classes, perhaps out of the fear of legitimizing other religions or out of concern that their children might discover another religion to be more attractive. Many religious information sources on the Internet and elsewhere teach a heavily distorted view about other religions, and about the teaching of heresies by “cults.”
Religious Tolerance
Acknowledging and supporting that individuals have the right and freedom to their own beliefs and related legitimate practices, without necessarily validating those beliefs or practices.
Many definitions exist for “religious tolerance.” Two of the most common are:
- Religious tolerance is about beliefs. Some religious conservatives equate religious tolerance as the acceptance of religious pluralism. That is the belief that all religions are equally valid within their own culture of origin. Religious conservatives often believe in exclusivity — that their religion is the only “true” faith. and that all other faith traditions are in error. Thus, many religious conservatives consider religious tolerance very negatively.
- Religious tolerance is about civil rights: Others define religious tolerance as a human rights issue. Religious tolerance means that you favor extending religious freedom to people of all faith traditions, even though you probably disagree with their validity of their beliefs and/or practices. In turn, religious freedom means that a person can, without oppression or discrimination:
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