Mankind seems to be divided by religious
categorisation. Some religious groups are more exclusive in their approach
than others. However, the approach of condemning people belonging to other
faiths, although it has become a much less pronounced problem in recent
times, has not vanished completely.
There have been many approaches adopted
by religious scholars belonging to different faiths to check the tendency
of growing bigotry amongst religious people. The Vatican adopted the policy
of Religious Inclusivism through its decree of 1967 which expressed sentiments
of cordiality for other important world religions. Words of sympathy were
also reserved in the decree for those who have chosen to follow the approach
of atheism.
There are, however, some Christians
scholars who believe that Religious Inclusivism, even though it is a welcome
improvement on Religious Exclusivism, still falls short of being fully
convincing. What has been presented by William Rowland, John Hick, and
Paul Badham is an approach to justify what they describe as Religious Pluralism.
According to this approach, all important religions are genuine human responses
to the same Transcendental Reality, even though influenced by the respective
cultural environments of the religious leaders. Thus all of them are simultaneously
correct, and all offer important insights into the understanding of the
Ultimate.
Both Religious Inclusivism and Religious
Pluralism promise more religious tolerance amongst those who choose to
adopt these points of view, although the latter seems to be more capable
of engendering true respect in the hearts of believers of one faith for
the believers in the other faiths.
Muslims have normally been considered
Religious Exclusivists, who would not hold people of other faiths worthy
of being offered respect for their religious commitments. There is, therefore,
felt a need to present an Islamic point of view on how Islamic teachings
propose to tackle the issue of religious plurality.
Islam, on the one hand takes a firm
position in confirming the unquestionable authenticity of its teachings,
on the other hand it also calls for genuine respect for all non-Muslims.
Even though there seems to be apparently a contradiction in the approach,
a better understanding of the various verses of the Qur’an on the
subject would suggest that it is not necessarily so.
The correct Islamic approach towards
the non-Muslims is to assume that all of them have, as yet, not been properly
convinced about the authenticity of the divine origins of the teachings
of Islam. It is for the Muslims to help the non-Muslims to appreciate the
truthfulness of the Islamic teachings. That would require not only intelligent
preaching on their part but, perhaps more importantly, a behaviour of respect
for the fellow human beings, irrespective of their faith. The absence of
that behaviour on the part of some Muslims has been an important reason
for their failure to present Islam as a message which is worthy of being
taken seriously by the non-Muslims. Thus true religious tolerance is at
the heart of a proper Islamic behaviour. Thus it will be shown that all
Muslims are required to be extremely tolerant of other faiths and to continue
their struggle to convince them politely.
This approach is neither Religious
Inclusivism of the sort adopted by the Vatican, nor Religious Pluralism
as proposed by Rowland Williams, John Hick, and Paul Badham. It is, in
fact, a call for religious tolerance because of the possibility of lack
of proper communication of the true message of God. Since no body knows
whether the other individual has been communicated the message of Islam
properly, therefore, no Muslim has the right to condemn any non-Muslim
on grounds of religious differences.
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