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There is much talk today about the need for tolerance of differing religious beliefs. Yet the battle of radical faith versus tolerance is not a new one: it has existed since before Greek city-states forced their Pantheon of Zeus, Hermes, and other gods on their neighbors as they conquered them. Today it is still in evidence around the world, most notably in the form of radical Islam and ultra-conservative Christian Evangelicalism, although the two manifest themselves in very different ways.

In much of the Muslim world, radical Islam is the result of a revolt by the lower classes, the poor, and the disenfranchised against oppressive regimes. In most cases, this revolt is moved forward by violence. This movement is led by educated men who use the teachings of The Prophet to their advantage, spreading intolerance in the hopes of replacing an oppressive government with one that almost always ends up being even more oppressive.

Yet even within Islam there is an alarming lack of tolerance of differing beliefs. The ideological battle between Sunnis and Shiites has existed for hundreds of years, but in the past several decades it has erupted into full-scale war for control of the heart and mind of the Muslim world. This is most visible in the daily sectarian killings occurring in Iraq.

Evangelicalism, by contrast, is more often spearheaded by those at the top of the social order, often as a way of keeping themselves in power. They reached the pinnacle of success when George W. Bush, a self-proclaimed born again Christian, was elected President of the United States in 2000. But like their radical Muslim counterparts, they too seek to stifle dissent as being hostile to God. And they use wedge issues such as abortion and gay marriage as a litmus test for who is a friend and who is a foe.

In the United States, Conservative Christians do not use guns or bombs to convert people, but we should not think that they are more enlightened because of this. Christianity had its own jihad hundreds of years ago against the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere, as well as wars between Christians in Europe during the Reformation. To this day, certain groups of Christians disdain other Christians as not Christian enough.

Both extremes of Islam and Christianity point to books written over a thousand years ago to support their claim of supremacy. But one has to wonder if they have ever read the passages in the Bible or the Koran calling for us to love one another, to care for the poor, and to defend the oppressed. While religious scholars and their followers rage over things such as prophetic succession and the "correct" way to be baptized, they miss the hungry child or homeless man right beside them. It is difficult to believe that Jesus or Muhammad would be pleased with this.

By its very nature, faith is a very personal thing. There are approximately one billion Christians on the planet, and since no two people can truly believe exactly the same thing about everything, this means there are one billion different interpretations of Christianity, even among Christians. The reason intolerance is an issue at all is because some people feel the need to convert others to their beliefs, either for power or prestige or financial gain. And some people do it simply for a sense of security against their doubts about their own beliefs, as if the sheer number of adherents to their religion makes their beliefs true.

Learn more about this author, Bruno Somerset.
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