'Tolerance is closely related to education'

'Tolerance is closely related to education'

Despite the forced closures of a number of churches this year by
hard-line Muslim groups, religious tolerance made a come back
over Christmas when Muslim organizations helped with security at
churches. The Jakarta Post asked some residents their opinion on
the issue.

Benny, 25, works at for cellular phone service provider on Jl.
Gatot Subroto in West Jakarta. He resides with his family in
Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta:

Personally, I think religious tolerance in our community is
superficial. In day-to-day life, we witness more religious
intolerance than tolerance. People treat others differently only
because they have a different religion.

In my girlfriend's neighborhood in Jagakarsa in South Jakarta,
for instance, I heard recently that some locals took down
circulars posted in public places only because the circulars
contained expressions deemed by those locals as belonging only to
a particular religion.

In my opinion, religious tolerance is much related to the
level of education. The higher a person is educated, the greater
the level of tolerance he/she has toward others.

Anton, 30, runs a seasonal parcel business. He lives in
Pulomas in East Jakarta with his family:

For the majority of our community, religious tolerance is not
deeply rooted. The word "tolerance" is repeatedly used to avoid
negative labels such as hard-liner, fundamentalist and radical.

In reality, the very people who claim to be tolerant were
those in the front line in the closures of places of worship and
restricting people from exercising their right to worship in
accordance with their faith and religion.

However, we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that a few
religious groups truly are tolerant toward different religions. I
think most people know which groups are truly tolerant and which
are not.

-- The Jakarta Post