Religion and Multicultural Education (PB)

The National Association for Multicultural Education in Washington, D.C., listed a number of issues that the schoolcurriculum should address with reference to multicultural education, including racism, sexism, classism, linguicism, ablism,ageism, heterosexism, and religious intolerance. It is noteworthy that of all these issues, religion is about the only one thatthroughout history people are willing to die for, although whether what is at issue is really religion or other things such as territoryis another matter. It is also interesting that all the others have isms in their names but religious issues are characterized byintolerance. Perhaps we should try to understand this intolerance and look at what steps might help to alleviate it.However, while intolerance might seem a simple thing, understanding what is behind it and how it plays such a crucialrole in religion requires what we refer to in the Introduction chapter as a multifaceted approach at multiple levels. It is notenough just to try to dispel stereotypes of followers of other religions, or to point out commonalities in world religions. Weshould, for example, try to understand and appreciate how adherents of other religions try to answer questions regarding theiradaptation to the contemporary environment. It is through understanding how different religions coexist side by side at variouslevels that we truly come to learn about religion in multicultural education.