Religious Pluralism And Religious Tolerance Versus How Religions Are Treated In Society
Religion has been a part of history for many years and has been based around God. However, in today’s society, Christianity, among other religions has been facing a rapid decline in terms of people’s faith and is on the path of extinction. Furthermore, religious beliefs can be seen as violent and also associated with terrorism, such as in the text “A time for anxiety and suspicion” by Martha Nussbaum, which focuses on women of Muslim decent who cannot wear their burqa or niqab due to the fear of them being associated with terrorism. However, this essay will focus on the ideal life versus reality, “religious pluralism and religious tolerance versus how religions are treated in society”. Therefore, it is important to have religious tolerance, believe in different ideas and faiths and we must acknowledge their choices.
The first part will focus on religious ideology and the primary importance of focusing on tolerance and what comes with toleration. Furthermore, the second part will focus on religious reality and how other religions are being treated. Religious pluralism involves having certain policies regarding diversity of religious beliefs. However, it is important to have religious tolerance, which is the idea that would lead to diverse equality. In the text “Democracy and new Religious Pluralism” by Thomas Bunchoff, Thomas states that pluralism can help individuals in society, in what they find tolerable, “…pluralism tests the limits of what religious people find tolerable in society…”.
Thus, in the text “Deep Equality as an Alternative to Accommodation and Tolerance” by Lori Beaman, she focuses on diversity and tolerance, which would lead to positive outcomes of appreciating different religions and essentially, leading to equality. Furthermore, Lori states that in order for individuals to become equal and tolerable, they must listen to ideas and values being said in order to understand what is occurring. Moreover, the text also mentions that listening is an important aspect of toleration and reaching equality and many individuals do not listen or comprehend what is being said, “… lost the art of listening of carefully attending to the detail of what people do or say on their day to day lives”.
However, listening helps others understand concepts better, which will help with equality and diversity. Thus, others will understand that religion is just a belief or value and does not change who they are. Moreover, deep equality can be seen as a law or social policy of diversity, which leads to the acceptance of others, “…equality is an achievement of day to day interaction and respect, recognition of similarity and simultaneous acceptance of difference”.
Furthermore, Lori and Thomas focus on equality, diversity, pluralism, all of which occur from toleration that will allow for individuals to work on accepting religious differences and values. Equality is the ability to treat all individuals with respect and dignity and have equal status in society. However, in many countries around the world, racism still occurs and still plays a major role in our world. In the text “A Time of Anxiety and Suspicion” by Martha Nussbaum, she focuses on religions from different origins and how they are treated. However, one of the most criticized religions is Islam, which affects both genders due to the fact Muslims are being labeled as terrorists. Therefore, due to these accusations, Muslims do not have equal privileges compared to other individuals with different beliefs, “… law would place a special burden on Muslims”. Moreover, Christians are able to wear or preach about God.
However, Muslims women are not able to wear their burqa and niqab, “… laws banning the wearing of the Muslims burqa and niqab in any public place”. Thus, individuals believe this notion of prejudice stems from Issa Bdier, who is the youngest Palestinian bomber that killed two individuals.
