Christianity: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men
should do to you, do ye even so to them." Matthew 7:12
Islam: "Not one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother
what he loves for himself" Fourth Hadith of an-Nawawi 13
Hinduism: "This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others which
would cause you pain if done to you." Mahabharata 5:1517
Buddhism: "A state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how
could I inflict that upon another?" Samyutta NIkaya v. 353
Almost all religions teach that one's primary responsibility is
towards one or more deities. Of lesser importance is how one reacts to
other people as described in their Ethic of Reciprocity.
Unfortunately, the Ethic is often interpreted by the laity as applying
mainly to fellow believers, and not necessarily to followers of other
religions. This is a fatal flaw which leads to inter-religious and
intra-religious conflict. Sometimes, this escalates to include
genocide.
Why is the Ethic not applied to non-believers?
There are certain factors present in Christianity, Islam and many
other religions that exacerbate the tendency to restrict the Ethic to
fellow believers rather that apply it also to followers of other
religions. Some are:
Each religion teaches a different concept of deity. It may be seen to
be a single, undivided unity; a dual divinity; a trinity; a pantheon
of deities; etc. Even monotheistic religions -- faiths that teach the
existence of a single deity -- describe their God differently; in
Christianity and Islam, for example, God has different attributes,
names, history, requirements, expectations, etc.
The believer in any one religion will naturally treat all other
religions as following false Gods. Other religions will be seen as
preaching blasphemy against the one "true deity." Unless faith groups
take pro-active measures, the natural tendency is for some believers
to discount the rights of blaspheming non-believers, and to treat them
as sub-human.
Many religions teach that a Hell exists where non-believers go after
death. Some people interpret the existence of Hell as implying that
God has such little regard for non-believers, and hates them so much
that he is going to torture them for all eternity, without any hope of
mercy or cessation of the pain. Thus, if a believer oppresses or even
kills non-believers, he or she may view themselves as simply doing
God's work on earth.
The end result is that a small percentage of Christians treat Muslims
as sub-human. They have even promoted wars of mass murder and genocide
against them, as in the recent cases of Bosnia and Kosovo. Also, too a
small minority of violent, radical, Fundamentalist Muslims treat
Christians as sub-human. They have promoted wars of mass murder and
genocide against them, as in the case of the Sudan, East Timor, and
the World Trade Center. Similarly, we have Jewish-Muslim, Muslim-
Jewish, Hindu-Muslim, and many other combinations of inter-faith
conflict throughout the world. We also have intra-faith conflict such
as is caused by Roman Catholic - Protestant hatred among Christians in
Northern Ireland, and Sunni- Shi'ite hatred among Muslims in Pakistan.
The solution:
We hesitate to put forth a solution for world peace. Groups with far
greater knowledge and intelligence are working on this problem and
developing different resolutions to religiously-motivated conflict.
However, lack of knowledge and intelligence have never stopped us in
the past. ;-)
Our basic hypothesis is that:
Organized religions, more than any other human institution, can
influence public behavior and moral codes -- either for good or
bad.
Many organized religions lack a proper balance among their teachings
of the believer's responsibilities towards:
deity/deities,
fellow believers, and
follower of other religions.
This imbalance is contributing to religiously-motivated violence
around the world.
By achieving a different balance -- one that would give greater
importance towards the human rights of non-believers, peace would be
encouraged.
We recommend the following actions:
Religious and political leaders should emphasize that their Ethic of
Reciprocity applies to persons of all religions, not just for fellow
believers.
In particular, they need to stress the importance of:
Treating followers of other religions with the respect due a fellow
human.
Valuing religious freedom and other human rights for all -- fellow
believers and non-believers alike.
Religious leaders and laity need to speak out forcefully, when they
see others oppress people's religious freedom -- whether the victims
are from their own faith group, their own religion, another religion,
or from a secular group.
Christians and Muslim leaders should soft-peddle the hatred by God
towards non-believers as it appears in their religious texts. This is
generally translated as the "wrath of God" in the Bible, and is
perhaps seen most frequently in Revelation.
Religious leaders and laity need to engage in more inter-faith and
ecumenical activities with non-believers and secularists.
Until the religions of the world realize that they are a main cause of
hatred, strife, and genocide, the slaughters will continue unabated.
Since Christian, Muslim and Hindu countries all have nuclear weapons,
the need for religious tolerance is urgent.
Examples:
Abstract words are fine. But concrete examples might be more useful.
Almost all of our visitors come from the U.S., so we will select six
American examples. The first three indicate how followers of one
religion supported followers of another when they were being
persecuted. The second three describe incidences where religious and
political leaders remained silent when they could have spoken out in
favor of tolerance.
Positive examples:
Public school incident: An ongoing problem in public schools is the
presence of youth gangs. Some school administrations have been banning
the wearing of gang symbols. Sometimes, they have also banned jewelry
containing religious symbols. One school principal in Biloxi, MS told
a Jewish student that he could not wear a Star of David. Pat Robertson
- a well known Fundamentalist Christian pastor -- defended the Jewish
student, saying: "Referring to the Star of David as a gang symbol is
either ignorance or religious intolerance. The decision ... to
suppress a heartfelt and legitimate public expression of faith is
totally inappropriate." The student was permitted to wear his
necklace.
Anti-semitic incident: An anti-semitic criminals in the predominately
Christian town of Billings, MT smashed the window of a Jewish home and
broke a menorah that the owners used to celebrate their wintertime
Festival of Lights. Throughout the town, Christians and others started
to display the image of a menorah in their own living room windows, to
show their rejection of religious bigotry, and their solidarity with
the oppressed religious minority. Positive good came out of a hate
crime. More details.
Anti-Muslim incident: The pastor of a church in Nashville, TN
delivered the first of a four-part sermon series on the "evils of
Islam." It was later broadcast on TV. Another local Presbyterian
Church posted a notice on their church sign, saying: "Islam is not a
threat: Prejudice is." The spokesperson for a local 100 member
pastors' group said: ''Our concern is also that this will give people
who are already angry and prejudiced against the Muslim community
license for violence.'' An attempt to spread discord and
disinformation backfired.t Missed opportunities:
Genocide advocacy: A group of Wiccans and followers of other Neopagan
religions in the military obtained permission to hold religious
services on their army base in Texas. A local Christian minister
delivered an inflammatory sermon, advocating that the U.S. Army round
up the Wiccans and execute them with napalm. To our knowledge, no non-
Pagan religious leader criticized his statement.
Congressional resolution: "A resolution supporting religious tolerance
toward Muslims" was introduced into the House and Senate. In 1999-DEC,
when it was referred to committee, chairperson Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL)
and committee members gutted and shelved the House resolution.
According to one investigator, some Christian and Jewish groups
lobbied for the resolution to be rewritten or withdrawn. To our
knowledge, no Christian, Jewish or secular group supported the
resolution.
Statement by presidential nominee: Back in 1987, when George H.W. Bush
was presidential nominee he said: "No, I don't know that Atheists
should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered
patriots. This is one nation under God." To our knowledge, no non-
Atheist criticized this statement.
>From the Religious Tolerance website.
(NOT written by me.)
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