"The time will come when we'll be people again and not just Jews!" This is how Anne Frank echoes her hallucination during the dark days of the the Holocaust for justice, peace and humanity. Nearly six million Jews were killed by Hitler and the Nazi party, one of worst genocides in history. Hitler's antisemitism stemmed from his hatred of Jews.
Even though the freedom of religion and belief is a fundamental principle of international law, there are still notable violations of this right in the modern world. No country and no faith community has a perfect record of religious freedom not being violated.
Today's world is a multireligious one. Too often the suffering cries of religious people who are being persecuted are echoed in news on television and in newspapers, crying out for justice and peace. That's the way we often experience the hatred of religious extremism. The persecution based on religious identity continues beyond the news coverage, as the news gets old. For the media, bad news is good news, but it remains bad in the life of those experiencing persecution, and it offers a very bad example of hatred to the world.
In recent years, there have been many examples of violent religious extremism, including the attack on the twin towers in New York, the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and, in 2005, the incident where a terrorist group set off 459 bombs throughout Bangladesh. The main target of Islamic extremists is to establish Islamic domination all over the world.
Freedom of religion is restrained in many Islamic countries, such as in Saudi Arabia, where the public practice of religions other than Islam is forbidden, although the Quran itself states, "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (The Qu'ran, Surah 2, verse 256). It's become very clear in their actions that the Islamic extremists are trying to introduce a very brutal version of Islam.
During his "Address in Killineer, Ireland" in Sept. 1979, His Holiness Pope John Paul II asserted, "Violence is a lie for it goes against the truth of our faith, the truth of our humanity." Religious freedom does not exist at all in many communist countries such as North Korea and, to some extent, China. The Kandhamal district in India, which is home to many Christians, has also experienced brutal attacks by hard-line Hindus. It's become a common phenomenon for religious extremism to foster mass destruction and longstanding hatred.
There is a chance to combat the language of hatred by combating the abuse of religion. Religious pluralism is the way to combat religious extremism. Religious pluralism enhances mutual understanding and acts for the common good in order to promote religious cooperation for peace and justice.
Interfaith dialogue is the widespread and vocal practice of religious pluralism. The existence of religious pluralism depends on the existence of freedom of religion. Religious plurality is the outcome of religious practice and interfaith dialogue. Freedom of religion encompasses all religions acting within the law in a particular region, whether or not an individual religion accepts the other religions as legitimate.
Christians have traditionally argued that religious pluralism is an invalid or self-contradictory concept. Religious pluralism to the extreme may seem to claim that all religions are equally true. Christians claim that all religions can never be equally true, and that it is logically and theologically impossible. But the fact is that interfaith dialogue or religious pluralism is not about probing into who is right or wrong. It's all about sitting down together to agree that there are lot of facts to disagree about, but that there are also common facts to discuss together, to promote justice and peace. There is a common message of love to beat the language of hatred.
In conclusion, I want to remember the famous saying of John F. Kennedy, "If we cannot end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity."
William Gomes is an independent human rights activist, a Catholic ecumenical activist, and a political analyst. He can be contacted by email at cda.exe@gmail.com.