Religious Pluralism, Build Tolerance between Religious Communities

Thus, pluralism becomes a solid view of democratic life in the USA, with the opportunity to think freely, respect for minorities, the presence of conflict in society can be resolved with peace to avoid violence, political participation, and constitutional guarantees of religious freedom there.

Regarding pluralism, the reality is that people in Indonesia still lack of understanding about this problem. This discourse on pluralism has become a national topic, and only a few of people speak up. 

Nurcholish Madjid (1999), explained that pluralism is a view that not only accepts the fact that society is pluralistic, but it is more fundamental that there must be a sincere attitude that this plurality is a gift from God to humans, because pluralism enriches dynamic cultural interactions, and diverse cultural exchanges. So that our nation's culture becomes rich in this plurality. Thus, pluralism is something that protects humanity and must exist in life.

Pluralism must be guarded with a spirit of tolerance. Tolerance is the attitude of accepting, respecting, and valuing differences. This trait will appear consciously when pluralism is lived in social life. Yusuf al-Qardawi (1993) said that tolerance is applied through association, a gentle attitude, affection, grace and do good to people of different religions. 

For Nurcholish Madjid (1996), tolerance is one of the principles of civil society. It means we must fight for it seriously, because religious pluralism and tolerance in its practice lead us to peace, within the framework of a civil society, the society we aspire to. So, it becomes a challenge that must be answered, namely to grow the understanding of pluralism with a tolerant attitude towards differences.