Workshop on

TEACHING FOR TOLERANCE IN THE INDONESIAN CONTEXT:

The contribution of school education

Makassar, Indonesia, 17-19 January 2007

SPEECH BY ODDBJØRN LEIRVIK FOR THE OPENING SESSION

On behalf of the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief, I would like to express my gratitude to the State Islamic University Allauddin for your generous offer to host this workshop in Makassar, in cooperation with the STT Intim Christian Theological Seminary.

The workshop “Teaching for Tolerance in the Indonesian context” is part of a larger project initiated by the Oslo Coalition, entitled “Teaching for Tolerance”. The first global meeting of the project was held in Oslo in 2004, under the heading “Teaching for tolerance, respect and recognition”. In November 2005, we followed up with a workshop in Istanbul, focusing on current challenges and new developments in Muslim majority societies with regard to tolerance education. The present workshop in Makassar is the third major event of the project.

Despite its name, the Oslo Coalition is not entirely a Norwegian organization. The reason why it is called the Oslo Coalition is that is was formed as a result of a large international conference in Oslo in 1998. The title of that conference, which was held in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was “Freedom of Religion or Belief”.

The activities of the Oslo Coalition are based on the universal principle of religious freedom and seek to promote dialogue and cooperation between different faiths. The Coalition’s activities are based on the conviction that freedom of religion or belief is a universal standard. We do not regard the demand for “religious freedom” as a polemical weapon to be used against others. We rather understand freedom of religion as a universal principle that challenges us all to promote respect for religious difference and interfaith cooperation.

In structural terms, the Oslo Coalition has got two legs: the faith communities and the academia. Through its Norwegian board, it is linked to the interfaith council in Norway and to the University of Oslo, being based in the university’s Centre for Human Rights.

As an international coalition, the Oslo Coalition brings together representatives of faith communities, other non-governmental organizations, and the academia. The Coalition works on a project basis, engaging like-minded partners in a number of countries. Along with the project “Teaching for Tolerance”, the Coalition has got a separate project on “New Directions in Islamic Thought and Practice”, headed by Muslim scholars and public intellectuals. Two years ago the UIN in Yogyakarta hosted a conference related to that particular project, which has got Amin Abdullah as a member of its steering committee.

The Oslo Coalition has made it a priority to cooperate with Indonesian partners, academic partners, interfaith associations such as Interfidei, and other civil society organizations such as the Center for Pesantren and Democracy Studies. Now we are gathered here in Makassar to explore the issue of Teaching for Tolerance in the Indonesian context. Through the workshop’s international guests, we will also include perspectives from other parts of the world such as the United Kingdom, Turkey, the United States, and Egypt.

As I see it, developing new forms of tolerance education and interfaith learning is a shared challenge between Christian and Muslim majority societies. In recent years, many European countries have revised their curricula for Religious Education and Civic Education, in order to bring them more in tune with the new religious pluralism in Europe of which Islam is an important part. As Christian majority societies, European countries are faced with the challenging task of redefining their sense of cultural community so as to accommodate for ever increasing religious pluralism.

In our workshop here in Makassar, we will explore the issue of tolerance education in the context of Indonesia which has a particularly rich tradition in accommodating for religious pluralism. Those of us who come from abroad, are keenly looking forward to the contributions of our Indonesian colleagues about challenges and prospects for tolerance education and interfaith learning in this country.

As the heading of our work (and the related international project) is “Teaching for Tolerance”, let me share with you some brief reflections on the notion of “tolerance”. In late modernity, the concept of tolerance has become thoroughly globalized, functioning today as a global point of reference for discussions about cultural and religious coexistence. But the way in which the notion of tolerance is understood and practiced, may differ considerably from one context to another.

From the history of ideas, it is well known that the idea of tolerance may either signify a minimal kind of political toleration of religious difference, or expand into a more comprehensive ideal which challenges also our cultural stereotypes and our personal attitudes towards the Other.

For the first global meeting of its project two years ago, the Oslo Coalition chose the heading “Teaching for Tolerance, Respect and Recognition”. This means that the Oslo Coalition subscribes to a comprehensive understanding of tolerance. It is not only about tolerating the Other. Tolerance has also to do with respect, which literally means re-spectare, to take a fresh look at the Other, in order to reach mutual recognition across cultural and religious divides. This comprehensive understanding of tolerance - in the sense of respect and recognition - is well in tune with UNESCO’s Declaration of Principles of Tolerance” from 1995. In this important UNESCO document, tolerance means “respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures”.

In our work for interfaith generosity, we have to realize that there are in fact many traditions and trends in our societies that work against tolerance. In many parts of the world, tolerance education is hampered or even blocked by a widespread tendency of mobilizing people politically on the basis of cultural or religious affiliation – a phenomenon that has often been characterized as “identity politics”. However, parallel to the development of confrontational forms of identity politics in recent decades, in the same period the world has also witnessed what we might in fact call an interfaith boom. Slowly but surely, the idea of mutual respect and dialogue between religions is gaining ground in our societies.

Like the idea of tolerance education, the idea of dialogue between faiths and civilizations can be a powerful antidote to divisive trends in religion and politics. The challenge before us is to translate our lofty hopes and ideals into practice. That requires also self-critical scrutiny.

I hope that this workshop will contribute to a task that we share across cultural and religious divides: to reformulate our curricula and textbooks so that coming generations will not be trained in religious identity politics but in respect and dialogue. The challenge is global in nature, and as pressing in Christian as in Muslim majority societies.

This is what brings us together across cultural and religious divides: the recognition that we share very similar challenges, in school and in society.