RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE SOME OBSERVATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF ISLAM– WEST ENCOUNTER

Abstract

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The paper investigates how the West engaged with the idea and practice of tolerance as it had manifested in other religions and cultures and how does it relate to the historical trajectory through which it became established in the West. The current unquestioned right of freedom of religious belief and worship in the Western world is thus not simply a corollary of secular thought; it is a principle inspired, at least in part by the influence of Islam. Tolerance is a multi-faceted concept comprising moral, psychological, social, legal, political and religious dimensions. The dimension of tolerance addressed by this essay is specifically religious tolerance, such as this principle finds expression within Islamic tradition, and how it came to be enshrined in Western thought after the Enlightenment. The Islamic tradition in principle, as well as in practice, provides compelling answers to many questions pertaining to the relationship between religious tolerance and practice of one‘s own faith. The lessons drawn from the Islamic tradition reveal that tolerance of Other is in fact integral to the practice of Islam – it is not some optional extra, some cultural luxury, and still less, something one needs to import from some other tradition.