From: alves@calvin.usc.edu (William Alves)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.indonesia
Subject: Re: What is the problem?
Date: 21 Jan 1993 13:52:56 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: calvin.usc.edu

In article <1993Jan21.164156.10837@cs.cornell.edu> donsw@cs.cornell.edu (Donald Wihardja) writes:
>In article <1jl83gINNoro@calvin.usc.edu> alves@calvin.usc.edu (William Alves) writes:
>>Silence and censorship create the kind of
>>ignorance and lack of communication that promotes stereotypes and intol-
>>erance. Religious prejudice and other forms of bias are overcome by knowing
>>members of other religions as people, by trying to understand (if not agree
>>with) their belief systems and customs, and by openly communicating.

>Well, I just think that the topic is one of those that both side cannot 
>agree on as it is the fundamental belief in each side. (If Jesus is the
>Son of God, Islam is bogus, if not, Christianity is bogus.) So there is
>no point in spending effort discussing it.

Proselytization is not the only possible reason for discussion of religious
issues. One of them is the understanding of culture without necessarily
wanting or needing to adopt that culture yourself. I think that religion
is one of the most fundamental aspects of culture and is appropriate, even
crucial, to discussion of a culture as we have in this newsgroup.

In parts of the United States, some people have the idea that Muslims are
warlike, intolerant zealots with towels on their heads, that they support
terrorism, international agression, and barbaric forms of punishment. Such
an attitude has ramifications far outside of religion itself - it shapes
public support for foreign policy; discrimination in employment, housing,
and services; even who one's child plays with.

One can try to legislate against religious discrimination, but until the
fundamental attitudes change, the problems will remain. One can teach
people that Muslims are normal people, that their religion supports peace
and tolerance, that they teach the equality of humankind. When people
get to know Muslims, they will see that they are mostly just as friendly,
intelligent, and non-violent as most Christians. This cannot happen without
open discussion and experience of each other's culture, including religion.

Oh a government can try to segregate religions and races, to tightly con-
trol expression and speech related to religion and race, and may even
succeed for a time to hold disparate peoples together with a minimum of
violence. But as is tragically obvious in Bosnia, Croatia, Azerbaijan,
and many, many other places around this world, such an approach does not
make the problems go away. It just allows the blind, unreasoning anger
to build until the problem finally explodes.

>Basically, its just bad timing, that's all.

I live in Los Angeles, and I know first-hand how prejudice and social
inequities can erupt into massive violence - in this case the worst
riots in the United States in this century. The main problems were racial,
not religious, but I think the principle holds. My response could have
been (like others I know), to move to an all-white neighborhood or city
and avoid the discussion of racial issues altogether. I could bring up
my child trying to insulate her from other races and prohibit the discussion
of issues of race. However, this would only serve to ingrain misunder-
standings and bias in yet another generation. It would only be a matter
of time before Los Angeles exploded again. Instead, I live in a multi-
ethnic neighborhood. I will expect my child to go to a multiethnic school
and read from both the Bible and the Quran, as well as many other points
of view.

>>Then, to me, the answer is more education and the teaching of religious
>>tolerance.

>You know, I believe that "religious tolerance" stems out of the fact that
>many people don't VERY FIRMLY believe in religion anymore.

I have known people of extremely firm convictions who held no prejudices
towards people of other faiths. In fact, while both Christianity and Islam
teach prosetylization, they also teach tolerance and friendship. A true
believer should look upon a non-believer with pity and love, not anger.

>As for the role of education: Education/scientific knowledge makes people
>believe less in God than in laws of nature.

I can recall nowhere in any body of scientific knowledge where it states
that God does not exist or offers any evidence to believe in God or not.
Many great scientists are very firmly religious. One thing that education
can do is to teach people to think for themselves and respect the fact
that others may come to different conclusions.

Bill Alves
Newsgroups: alt.culture.indonesia