Unit 2: What is religious intolerance?

PDF file: Lesson ideas

Purposes of the curriculum 3-18 

In addition to the key contributions of the whole the course, these activities also contribute toward young people becoming:

• successful learners able to make reasoned evaluations
• confident individuals with secure values and beliefs able to develop and communicate their own beliefs and view of the world
• responsible citizens with respect for others able to develop informed, ethical views of complex issues
• effective contributors able apply critical thinking in new contexts

This unit should introduce the pupils to the concept of religious intolerance.

You could begin by allowing pupils opportunities to define the term 'intolerant'.

Therefore, religious intolerance could be described as:

Activity

Pupils could be asked to write down the definitions once discussion has taken place.

You could now consider the different types of religious intolerance that exist.

For example, religious intolerance could be divided into four types:

1. Inter faith intolerance (e.g. Hindu-Christian conflict)
2. Intra-faith intolerance (e.g. Sh'ite v. Sunni Muslims)
3. Intolerance by or from a religious group against a non-religious group (e.g. believers v. non-believers)
4. Intolerance by or from a non-religious group against a religious group (e.g. non-believers v. believers)

An example of religious intolerance between two groups within the same religion is also called sectarianism. Sectarianism is intolerance between two denominations / sects within a faith. Sectarianism is an example of religious intolerance.

You may find it useful to find out about denominations and sects of different faiths. The resources section has information on useful websites to visit.

How does sectarianism occur?

• For pupils to know how to challenge and stop sectarianism they need to be able to recognise how sectarianism occurs.
• Pupils could be asked to come up with ideas of how they think sectarianism occurs.

Some examples you might include are:

• Spreading wrong information about a group's beliefs or practices without knowing anything about the group;
• Spreading hatred about an entire group, e.g. stating or implying that all members of the groups are backward, evil, behave immorally, commit criminal acts, are sinful and so on;
• Making fun of and putting down an entire faith group for their sincerely held belief and practices;
• Attempting to force religious beliefs and practices on others against their will;
• Restricting human rights of members of a recognised religious group and degrading other faiths as worthless or evil.

Pupils may come up with other examples. Examples could be written up on the board or a flipchart for pupils to copy out under the heading 'Some Sectarian Actions'.

Considering the concept of the 'Golden Rule'

Christianity's Golden Rule urges that we: 'Treat others as you want them to treat you.' (Luke 6:31)

Pupils could be asked to research what other golden rules from other faith groups are. You may find it useful to conduct the research yourself first. The website http://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm, which has a section on the 'Ethics of Reciprocity', is helpful.

Further 'Golden Rule' examples from other faiths might include:

Confucius (a Chinese philosopher) said 'Do not do to others what you do not want the others to do to you.'

Hillel the Elder, the famous Jewish rabbi from the 1st century BCE and CE summed up the Torah with the expression 'What is hateful to you, do not do to your friend.'

'Every religion emphasises human improvement, love, respect for others, sharing other people's suffering. On these lines every religion has more or less the same viewpoint and the same goal.' The Dalai Lama (the leader of Tibetan Buddhists)

A Hindu Holy Book teaches: 'This is the sum of duty; do nothing to others that you would not have them do to you.' (Mahabharata 5,1517)

The Muslim Holy Quran teaches: 'No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.'

Activity

Pupils could be asked to consider each of these statements, write them out and explain one of them.

Class discussion could focus on why religious people believe that all people should be treated fairly? Again, pupils could be asked to write out their answers in a list.

A word of caution!

It is important when considering the Golden Rule that such discussions should be framed within an anti-discrimination framework. For example, if a pupil were to suggest 'I don't mind people calling me sectarian names so why shouldn't I use sectarian words about others?', the teacher will need to be prepared to discuss why this would not be acceptable. Using sectarian words to name-call or to be abusive is not acceptable. The teacher then could ask pupils to examine the implications of such a stance e.g. expressions of violence and hatred both verbal and physical. This is where the saying of 'sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me' could be deconstructed.

Activity

Pupils could be asked to create a mind map that will help them to begin to understand how people can be intolerant of each other.

A Mind Map