Cultural awareness and Cultural sensitivity between different faiths is important. Lack of understanding and lack of respect for each other's faiths and cultures can cause tensions and riots. Major cause is intolerance...There is no sense in education if we can't teach our children to be culturally and religiously tolerant. It is alright to co-exist with differences in faith and religion.The rising racial attacks everywhere calls for concern and it stems purely out of lack tolerance and biased attitude.Lack of mutual respect of each other's way of life and thought process divides people.
Perhaps lack of employment is the source of it too as people tend to get exploited then as they lose focus and direction in life. Ideal mind is a Devil's workshop as the saying goes...The deprivation of proper knowledge also may be the root cause. Some people fear what they do not understand and they attack it to feel less intimidated... I feel there should be Cultural Acceptance and people should not react harshly to Cultural Differences and Cultural Shocks. According to me, if your good values and education are strong, you cannot really deviate from it and you will not cause harm to others and will not attack each other in the name of hatred and religious intolerance. There are ways to deal with differences by getting to know each other to enhance your knowledge. This is a never ending discussion but all I can say like always is that it is up to us what we teach our children as responsible adults.
The teachers have to take responsibility in creating cultural awareness and respect for differences in faiths amongst children and parents have to support teachers. Whatever the students are taught at schools will only have deep impact when it is followed at home as well. In Mie as a JET Programme Teacher my task was to create cultural awareness besides teaching English. At times it was challenging but in the end I always managed to awaken cultural sensitivity amongst the community there specially by adapting myself to their culture as well. You have to practice what you preach...I am confident that my students would grow to become responsible and culturally aware adults. I am sure that they will demonstrate cultural sensitivity and empathy and will adapt easily to the differences in people and foreign cultures.
In the International School in Tokyo (JIS and now AJIS) we were taught to be culturally tolerant. If some students were not culturally sensitive, some others including me would try to motivate them to be tolerant. "Empathy" was one of the subjects taught at school then on Saturdays. In India we have a subject called " Moral Science" in Convent Schools which too helps students to take the positive path in life. In fact our mythological stories and epics also stress on good values and morals if understood correctly and interpreted accurately.
As it is, whatever some may think India is basically religiously tolerant as various cultures,traditions and faiths mingle and live together despite their differences. We believe that there is Unity in Diversity. We colour ourselves in each other's sentiments and faiths like our Festival of Colours (Holi) denotes..We celebrate and respect all festivals or take part in each other's festivities. It is alright to follow your Faith with sincerity and completely as long as you respect the Faith of others as well. One has a right to defend and protect oneself and One's identity but it is not required to threaten the faith of others to preserve and promote your faith as that only reveals your own insecurity. The initiation of any kind of hate crimes should not be tolerated anywhere and we should condemn it. We should honour each other's cultures. We may not be able to get the entire world to cure itself from the everlasting illness of religious intolerance and hatred as well as racial discrimination but we could take the first step in making visible attempts to eradicate it...starting from home. We have to bridge the psychological distance between Individuals, Communities and Nations.
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