Human rights affirm and protect the right of every individual to live and work without discrimination and harassment. Human Rights policies and legislation attempt to create a climate in which the dignity, worth and rights of all people are respected, regardless of race, ancestry, place of origin, color, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, family status or disability.
Multicultural or Tolerance Education
A broad term which may refer to a set of structured learning activities and curricula designed to create and enhance understanding of and respect for cultural diversity. It is increasingly recognized that multicultural education should include racial, ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity, and also be inclusive of the culture, heritage, history, beliefs and values of the various people and groups within a pluralistic society.
Religious Pluralism
An intentional, engaged response to the reality of religious plurality (the presence of multiple religious groups) within a community or society. Pluralism moves beyond mere recognition of religious diversity, to the positive valuing of differences as a source of potential strength for the community. Religious pluralism does not require that one view the truth claim of every single religious community as equal, but calls for recognition and respect of the truth claims and traditions of others. A perspective of pluralism encourages movement from mere toleration of differences, to positive appreciation, to dialogue and cooperation that seeks common ground from which a shared social, moral, cultural etc. framework can be created.
Interfaith Groups in the US
In 1893, the first World Parliament of Religions was held in Chicago, Illinois, USA. About one hundred religious leaders from around the globe met to discuss the need to respect differences in religious expression and to find other ways to settle conflicts than through religious violence. After two world wars in the beginning of the twentieth century, many leaders worked to create the United Nations that published the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 in the hope of helping all countries work to secure individual rights in their own societies and to help prevent further world war. The World Council of Churches was also formed in which people of differing Protestant faiths would agree to cooperate to do the same. By the 1960s the Catholic Church took up a major revision of its thinking toward faith traditions other than their own of Catholic Christianity; Vatican II reformations of doctrine opened that door to interfaith understanding and cooperation.
Today, interfaith groups are forming in every part of the country carrying a concern that we work as much as we can to increase interreligious dialogue as a form of religious diplomacy. Especially since 9/11, persons in the United States have awakened to a very pressing need to understand Islam in its many differing traditions around the globe, and by extension, to understand religious traditions different from their own but represented in US society.
Positive Valuing of Difference and Negotiation of Minority Rights
Diversity of any kind in society may be viewed in different ways. Some members of the majority (whether ethnic, religious, racial, linguistic or other) may perceive minorities as potentially threatening to their previously homogeneous identity. Although from its inception the US has been constituted by people from varied backgrounds, acceptance of “the newcomers” and of “the Other” was not always easy. For example, intra-Christian tensions in the early years (e.g. between pro- and anti-establishment Protestants; later between Protestants and Catholics) were followed by suspicion of Jewish immigrants, and later of newcomers of other religious traditions (e.g. Hinduism, Islam etc.)
Diversity can also be perceived as a source of strength and richness in a society. Positive valuing of difference (or, moving from acknowledging plurality to embracing pluralism) means that one sees the heterogeneity of the population as different reflections of the human experience which can all contribute to enriching the common good. In other words, we can all learn from those who are significantly different from us – and not regard them as potentially dangerous because of “taking away” our own identity.
Minority rights in the US today are negotiated within the context of great diversity, in light of the historical developments in the civil rights and women’s movements, and on the basis of the US Constitution.
