'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