There is No Religious "Right"

Religious persecution is nothing new, nor is a religious or ritual response to oppression. Gandhi, Wovoka and the Ghost Dance, even, some might say, Jesus Christ, offered resistance to mainstream religious narratives through their faith and preaching of peace and tolerance. Sadly, words become distorted, and the cycle of violence continues. Over the last several days, in Malaysia, the Tamil sect of Hindus protested against decades worth of unfair treatment by the government, and in Tehran, a Sufi monastery was torched by Shiite vigilantes. [via Technoccult]

My teacher, Dr. Fred Clothey, spent many years working with the Tamil, both in India and in various diasporas here in America, trying to promote religious discussion and peace. As he put it, most religious intolerance occurs out of a fundamental inability to take the other person's point of view into consideration, and that it is perhaps not possible to even understand our own beliefs until you've been able to directly empathize with those who believe something entirely different.