Erlewine's recovery of a religion of reason stands in contrast both to secularist critics of religion who reject religion for the sake of reason and to contemporary religious conservatives who eschew reason for the sake of religion. Monotheism and Tolerance suggests a way to deal with the intractable problem of religiously motivated and justified violence. What impulse prompted some newspapers to attribute the murder of 77 Norwegians to Islamic extremists, until it became evident that a right-wing Norwegian terrorist was the perpetrator?
Why did Switzerland, a country of four minarets, vote to ban those structures? How did a proposed Muslim cultural center in lower Manhattan ignite a fevered political debate across the United States?
Nussbaum surveys such developments and identifies the fear behind these reactions. Drawing inspiration from philosophy, history, and literature, she suggests a route past this limiting response and toward a more equitable, imaginative, and free society. Fear, Nussbaum writes, is "more narcissistic than other emotions. Overcoming intolerance requires consistent application of universal principles of respect for conscience.
Just as important, it requires greater understanding. Nussbaum challenges us to embrace freedom of religious observance for all, extending to others what we demand for ourselves. She encourages us to expand our capacity for empathetic imagination by cultivating our curiosity, seeking friendship across religious lines, and establishing a consistent ethic of decency and civility.
With this greater understanding and respect, Nussbaum argues, we can rise above the politics of fear and toward a more open and inclusive future. Khaled Abou El Fadl, a prominent critic of Islamic puritanism, leads off this lively debate by arguing that Islam is a deeply tolerant religion. Injunctions to violence against nonbelievers stem from misreadings of the Qur'an, he claims, and even jihad, or so-called holy war, has no basis in Qur'anic text or Muslim theology but instead grew out of social and political conflict.
Many of Abou El Fadl's respondents think differently. Some contend that his brand of Islam will only appeal to Westerners and students in "liberal divinity schools" and that serious religious dialogue in the Muslim world requires dramatic political reforms. Other respondents argue that theological debates are irrelevant and that our focus should be on Western sabotage of such reforms.
Still others argue that calls for Islamic "tolerance" betray the Qur'anic injunction for Muslims to struggle against their oppressors. The debate underscores an enduring challenge posed by religious morality in a pluralistic age- how can we preserve deep religious conviction while participating in what Abou El Fadl calls "a collective enterprise of goodness" that cuts across confessional differences? Today, and historically, religions often seem to be intolerant, narrow-minded, and zealous.
But the record is not so one-sided. It was a sentiment George Washington voiced shortly after taking the oath of office just a few blocks from Ground Zero. In the storybook version most of us learned in school, the Pilgrims came to America aboard the Mayflower in search of religious freedom in The Puritans soon followed, for the same reason. The problem is that this tidy narrative is an American myth. First, a little overlooked history: the initial encounter between Europeans in the future United States came with the establishment of a Huguenot French Protestant colony in at Fort Caroline near modern Jacksonville, Florida.
More than half a century before the Mayflower set sail, French pilgrims had come to America in search of religious freedom. The Spanish had other ideas. In , they established a forward operating base at St. Augustine and proceeded to wipe out the Fort Caroline colony. In other words, the first encounter between European Christians in America ended in a blood bath. The much-ballyhooed arrival of the Pilgrims and Puritans in New England in the early s was indeed a response to persecution that these religious dissenters had experienced in England.
But the Puritan fathers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony did not countenance tolerance of opposing religious views. The most famous dissidents within the Puritan community, Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, were banished following disagreements over theology and policy. Four Quakers were hanged in Boston between and for persistently returning to the city to stand up for their beliefs.
Throughout the colonial era, Anglo-American antipathy toward Catholics—especially French and Spanish Catholics—was pronounced and often reflected in the sermons of such famous clerics as Cotton Mather and in statutes that discriminated against Catholics in matters of property and voting.
In newly independent America, there was a crazy quilt of state laws regarding religion. There is no verse in the Qur'an that annulled previous religions.
According to the Qur'an, those who believe in God, believe in the Hereafter and do good deeds will be saved. The Qur'an also confirms that Jews, Christians and Sabians will be rewarded.
The prominent Traditionalist Seyyed Hossein Nasr is one of the Muslim scholars who proposes a pluralistic view to religious diversity. He is a proponent of the idea known as Perennial Philosophy 3 in Latin philosophia perennis. Perennial Philosophy differentiates between inward and outward aspects of religions and believes in multiplicity of manifestations while considering the reality behind them as the same.
According to Perennial Philosophy, wisdom is essentially of divine origin, and knowledge is a sacred thing that God has given to man. In addition, Perennial Philosophy considers spirituality, commitment, and morality as other aspects of knowledge.
Nasr writes:. By philosophia perennis This knowledge which is available to the intellect is, more- over, contained at the heart of all religions or traditions, and its realization and attainment is possible only through those traditions and by means of methods, rites, symbols, images and other means sanctified by the message from Heaven or the Divine which gives birth to each tradition.
Accordingly, Nasr maintains inner unity and outer multiplicity of religions. The Ultimate Reality manifests Itself in multifarious sacred worlds sometimes in mythical forms and at other times as "abstract" monotheism. Sometimes It manifests Its Names and Qualities in the sounds and forms of a sacred language and at other times as divinities symbolizing the various divine forces; hence the distinction between a polytheism aware of the Divine Unity transcending multiple sacred forms.
He believes that what makes religions different is only the outward appearance not the Reality they all are issued from. This view holds that there is a fixed thing that is the essence of all religions and traditions and does not change with temporal and spatial changes.
What changes is the theological form or expression of this wisdom. Each religion depends on the area and location in which it appears and the characteristics of people it comes for. Nasr says:. Revelation is always given in the language of the people to whom God addresses Himself. Hence, doctrinal language play a great role in religious diversity. Only the doctrinal language differs from one tradition to another. According to Hick the origin of religious diversity is difference in experiences of the Ultimate Reality.
Different people with different epistemic backgrounds have variant experiences of the Ultimate Reality; hence they form their own conceptions of god which are not the same as others. In this view, different understandings are not genuine, because they are human made. So, to reach consensus, religions should leave their dogmatic position aside and try to be more convergent.
This is the key to peace. So, all religions, by all their differences and as they are i. According to Nasr, modernity and globalization have brought us a situation where we should accept plurality of religions and respect them. People in the past used to live in religiously homogenous traditional societies and usually did not encounter beliefs different from theirs. Hence they considered their own beliefs as binding and accepted them in a dogmatic way. But today, this isolation is broken and people are facing different cultures and religions.
Nowadays, to ignore other traditions is difficult, if not impossible. Believing in Transcendent unity of religions helps us to respect other religions in peace. It is important to notice that Nasr talks about pluralism at the level of truth not only soteriological pluralism. Nevertheless, it can be argued that some religions may have gone through alterations to their truth through time, thus different religions may not be the same, when it comes to access to the truth, as well as salvation.
However, religions could still be considered as the same at the core level. Metaphorically, the Truth can be the tip of a mountain and religions are different paths to that tip; some are wide and easy to pass while others are narrower and harder, though eventually all will end to the top.
All of this is a denial of religious exclusivism and to have tolerance with others. And last but not least, the responsibility is on the intellectuals and the media to enlighten people to have better understanding of their faith in social aspects.
People should be aware of peace as a primary universal human right. The media plays a central role in the public sphere to encourage people to have peaceful communications with each other. As a peace journalist, they should identify, understand, and explain the roots of conflict and working against disinformation; providing balanced information from a variety of sources; and educate the public by offering principles of culture of peace.
In conclusion, we need a more peaceful world, in which a non-violent communication will be guaranteed. This paper suggests first, to teach peace discourse in society for the realization of a society free of violence and the culture of peace. Second, to avoid conflicts and violence in societies, cultural and religious pluralism should be accepted, interactions and friendships between people with different religions should be pursued, on the one hand, and to reject exclusivism and conflicts on the other hand.
Since religion is a crucial factor to secure peaceful world, as almost every war between the nations has involved wrong religious education, we strongly need to have a true interpretation of religious teachings. One of the main causes of misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the Islamic teachings is Fundamentalism, and the avoidance of rationality.
Education in any society will play an important role in the cultivation of knowledgeable people and in the development of culture. Because the human factor is the most important factor in the development, growth and development of a society. I have argued that there are many principles in Islamic teachings that provide a foundation for the culture of peace.
The first, the acceptance of religious faith is optional. The second is Islam's emphasis on peace and non-violence as the primary law. The third principle is to pay attention to the spiritual self-awareness inherent in our human nature that can move people away from violence. In spite of these principles of peace in Islamic cultural heritage, however Islamic teachings are misunderstood and mis- interpreted in some societies. The responsibility is on the intellectuals and the media to enlighten people to have better understanding of their faith in social aspects.
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