In a religious context, ‘tolerance’ refers to people’s ability and willingness to respect, or at least do nothing actively to deter or discriminate against, other people’s beliefs and customs. Intolerance is, of course, the opposite. In a multicultural society a high degree of tolerance is obviously important to enable people to ‘get along’ with each other.
So why are many people intolerant? Sociologists have suggested that much intolerance is based on fear — fear of ‘the other’, or those who are different in some respect from oneself. Bauman states that modern control of the masses developed through fear of ‘the other’, while Furedi claims that fear has become a powerful force that dominates the public imagination. Recognising the extreme acts that can result from such fear, he says that ‘the only thing we have to fear is the culture of fear itself’.
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