Abstract
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.
Suheyl Umar. (2011) RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE SOME OBSERVATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF ISLAM– WEST ENCOUNTER, Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization, Volume 1, Issue 2 .
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