Is it enough to acknowledge we have differences and let them exist? The concept of tolerance can be looked at from many vantage points.
Cultures in which tolerance is a relevant discussion have some distinguishing characteristics. It is national leaders in the west who tend to champion the idea of tolerance. Such cultures tend to be Individual Accountability oriented, where individuals take responsibility for their actions and expect others to do the same. They tend to be Directive Destiny oriented: inclined to see the world as a place where individuals can have a great deal of influence on their life outcome.
Such cultures also generally favor a Direct style of Communication and are Achieved Status oriented, with status being earned instead of inherited.
All of these are significant in motivating members of the culture to advocate for tolerant coexistence in society. How do these factors motivate tolerance? Well, if you are viewed as personally accountable for pursuing a good situation in life and are expected to earn your status through hard work and resourcefulness, all while communicating directly and frankly based on who you are - you must have an environment where you can do this.
Fostering this kind of environment has become increasingly challenging as expat communities and other forms of diversity grow around the globe — hence the need many feel for people to learn tolerance. This idea of a fair playing field is a culturally-based motivation, and when bounded appropriately, it is a beautiful thing. But there is also a dark side, a slippery slope to manage or it will spiral down into a culture missing important foundations.
Advocates sometimes imply that learning tolerance will teach us how to live in the same space. But trying to tolerate each other is insufficient. In fact, when a pursuit of tolerance becomes too powerful in society, the opposite actually happens. That is the main idea we want to highlight in this article. We will also talk about how to protect employee engagement and creativity in this kind of environment. Pursuing tolerance as an end in itself leads to a slippery slope.
People stop engaging constructively with opposing views and divide into groups like themselves. As people forget how to debate constructively, toxic conflict arises. It cannot be a matter of rules. The moment it degenerates into rules, it ceases to be a religion, as it kills responsibility which is an essence of the true religious act.
Tolerance and patience should not be read as signs of weakness. They are signs of strength. We all live with the objective of being happy, our lives are all different and yet the same. Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.
We all know we are unique individuals, but we tend to see others as representatives of groups. It is a worthy thing to fight for one's freedom; it is another sight finer to fight for another man's.
Tavaana holds a vision for a free and open Iranian society, one in which each and every Iranian enjoys equality, justice and the full spectrum of civil and political liberties.
The Tolerance Project aims to inspire conscience, pluralism, religious freedom, and celebration of difference. Using an array of educational materials in Arabic, Persian, and English, The Tolerance Project emphasizes the capacity of each and every individual to counter hate, and imparts the benefits of living in tolerant, open societies.
The Tolerance Project educates to prevent persecution and genocide, cultivating the basis for vibrant and stable societies in the broader Middle East. Skip to main content. Search form Search. Promoting Tolerance. You are here Home Promoting Tolerance. Asset Source:. Asset Primary Link:. How Can Intolerance Be Countered?
Fighting intolerance requires law: Each Government is responsible for enforcing human rights laws, for banning and punishing hate crimes and discrimination against minorities, whether these are committed by State officials, private organizations or individuals. The State must also ensure equal access to courts, human rights commissioners or ombudsmen, so that people do not take justice into their own hands and resort to violence to settle their disputes. Fighting intolerance requires education: Laws are necessary but not sufficient for countering intolerance in individual attitudes.
Intolerance is very often rooted in ignorance and fear: fear of the unknown, of the other, other cultures, nations, religions. Intolerance is also closely linked to an exaggerated sense of self-worth and pride, whether personal, national or religious. These notions are taught and learned at an early age. Therefore, greater emphasis needs to be placed on educating more and better. Greater efforts need to be made to teach children about tolerance and human rights, about other ways of life.
Children should be encouraged at home and in school to be open-minded and curious. Fighting intolerance requires access to information: Intolerance is most dangerous when it is exploited to fulfil the political and territorial ambitions of an individual or groups of individuals.
Hatemongers often begin by identifying the public's tolerance threshold. They then develop fallacious arguments, lie with statistics and manipulate public opinion with misinformation and prejudice. The most efficient way to limit the influence of hatemongers is to develop policies that generate and promote press freedom and press pluralism, in order to allow the public to differentiate between facts and opinions. Fighting intolerance requires individual awareness: Intolerance in a society is the sum-total of the intolerance of its individual members.
Bigotry, stereotyping, stigmatizing, insults and racial jokes are examples of individual expressions of intolerance to which some people are subjected daily. Intolerance breeds intolerance. It leaves its victims in pursuit of revenge. In order to fight intolerance individuals should become aware of the link between their behavior and the vicious cycle of mistrust and violence in society.
Each one of us should begin by asking: am I a tolerant person? Do I stereotype people? Do I reject those who are different from me? Do I blame my problems on 'them'? Fighting intolerance requires local solutions: Many people know that tomorrow's problems will be increasingly global but few realize that solutions to global problems are mainly local, even individual.
When confronted with an escalation of intolerance around us, we must not wait for governments and institutions to act alone. We are all part of the solution. We should not feel powerless for we actually posses an enormous capacity to wield power. Nonviolent action is a way of using that power-the power of people. The tools of nonviolent action-putting a group together to confront a problem, to organize a grassroots network, to demonstrate solidarity with victims of intolerance, to discredit hateful propaganda-are available to all those who want to put an end to intolerance, violence and hatred.
In , the anti-Semitic business magnate Henry Ford published excerpts from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as part of a disparaging series of leading articles in his private newspaper, the Dearborn Independent. For more on this topic: "Interview: Ford's Anti-Semitism. Across the country, Hutu extremists murdered their Tutsi neighbors in the hundreds of thousands — often with machetes — in what is known as the Rwandan genocide.
There were, however, small acts of humanity in the midst of mass killings. Hutu hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina took in everyone he could, turning his hotel into a refuge from the violence. For more on this topic: "Paul Rusesabagina.
Afghanistan was once rich with pre-Islamic artifacts, but the Taliban and other marauding groups have destroyed many of these beautiful relics in the brutal struggles that have gripped the country.
However, some concerned Afghans have acted to preserve the country's heritage. As the Soviet Army withdrew in and the country collapsed into bitter civil war, National Museum of Afghanistan curator Omara Khan Massoudi worked to save some artifacts from pillagers. Burying ancient Bactrian gold and ivory sculptures under the Presidential Palace and the streets of Kabul in , he finally retrieved many the priceless artifacts unscathed 14 years later and presented them to then Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
In an attempt to forcibly transform the Soviet Union into a socialist paradise, the Communist Party declared the elimination of religion to be an ideological imperative. Even though the Orthodox Church was deeply interwoven in pre-revolutionary Russian society, the state forbade public expressions of faith, demolished hundreds of places of worship, and executed hundreds of priests. However, the Orthodox faith remained rooted in Russia - as communism collapsed in the late s and early 90s, millions rushed to be baptized and thousands were ordained as priests.
Despite attempts to eliminate religion, today the majority of Russians identify themselves as Orthodox Christian. For more on this topic: "Religion in the Soviet Union. Selling 10, copies in its first week and becoming the second best-selling book of the century after the Bible, the graphic horrors of slavery portrayed in the book ignited social consciousness and fierce public debate.
This debate carried through into the U. Civil War, which in turn led to Congress passing the 13th amendment to the U. Constitution, prohibiting slavery throughout the country. Uncle Tom's Cabin prepared the way for one of the biggest social shifts in American history. For more on this topic: "Uncle Tom's Cabin.
In Canada, freedom of religion is strongly protected at the national, provincial, and local levels. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, part of the country's constitution, forbids discrimination by the state on religious grounds and guarantees the fundamental right of freedom of conscience and religion.
The various provincial human rights codes go further and require employers, service providers and other private individuals to provide reasonable accommodation to all, regardless of religious belief. For more on this topic: "Freedom of religion in Canada. In the early 20th century, the Ku Klux Klan was responsible for the deaths of thousands of African-Americans, and symbols of the Klan — like the burning cross — inspired terror nationwide.
But in , the Klan was dealt a significant blow by a single concerned citizen. Activist and author Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the Klan over a period of months, gathering key information on the group's secret rituals and code words.
By trivializing the Klan, the broadcast helped strip the Klan of its mystique. Over time, the group declined rapidly and only a few thousand members are active today. For more on this topic: "Stetson Kennedy. For more on this topic: "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Despite his sharp criticism of organized religion, Voltaire, one of the Enlightenment's greatest thinkers, resolutely defended religious tolerance.
The most famous example of this defense was sparked by a tragedy. Public opinion quickly settled on his father, Jean, as the prime suspect — it was supposed that he had killed Marc-Antoine to prevent him from converting to Catholicism. Jean was repeatedly and inhumanely tortured and eventually executed. Outraged by the blatant injustice of the case, Voltaire succeeded in securing Jean a posthumous pardon, and went on to write his famous treatise on religious tolerance.
For more on this topic: "Jean Calas. On July 8, , school children in a small Indian town rose to sing the national anthem, "Jana Gana Mana," but one year old boy and his sisters did not join their classmates. This behavior was condemned as unpatriotic by school employees and became a local scandal, eventually resulting in the expulsion of the children. Their family sued, and the case eventually rose to the Supreme Court where the children were exonerated, with Justice O.
With more than different ethnic groups, the landlocked East African nation of Chad is one of the world's most diverse. Although Arabic and French — legacies of Islamic conquest and European colonialism — are the two official languages, over a hundred languages are spoken within the country's borders.
Islam, Christianity and various forms of animism and tribal ritual are widely practiced, and Christian holidays like Christmas, All Saints Day and Easter are public holidays alongside Islamic ones such as Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. For more on this topic: "Freedom of religion in Chad. In the late 19th century, thousands of South Asian migrants flocked to East Africa to construct a railway network throughout the British Protectorate of Uganda.
Over the following century, many of these laborers and their descendants secured lucrative positions in the growing domestic economy. However, the rise to power of President Idi Amin in brought trouble. The United Kingdom attempted to intercede with Amin, but eventually accepted almost 27, refugees, decimating the Indian and Pakistani community in Uganda.
For more on this topic: "Expulsion of Asians from Uganda. Although branded as the transcript of a Jewish plot masterminding world domination, a large portion of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is copied directly from a political satire by French writer Maurice Joly.
This plagiarism is just one of the many holes in the Protocols' so-called indictment of world Jewry. Today, after decades of intermittent war and repression, it is estimated that fewer than ten Jews remain, while more Yazidis and Christians flee every day. For more on this topic: "Religion in Iraq. Members of the Iranian Baha'i faith have been persecuted since the founding of the religion in the mids. This persecution severely intensified after the Islamic Revolution in , and continues to this day.
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Rule of Law and Democracy.
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