Premium
Only tolerance understood as discernment and capitalisation on diversity can counter extremism, Romania's President Klaus Iohannis said in a message on Friday to an international debate on religious education between radicalism and tolerance hosted by Parliament Palace in Bucharest.
According to Iohannis, "radicalism, be it religious or political radicalism, is one of the gravest problems of the world we are living in," and that is "a negative effect of the lack of knowledge and aversion toward cultural, ethnic and religious diversity."
In his opinion, there is no progress unless sustainable bonds are built among nations, communities and people.
"The history of the last century has gone down as forever stigmatised by the bad consequences of faith turning into ideologies that in their turn fuelled totalitarian policies. We are witnessing today, unfortunately, conflicts in the recent history that call into question the capacity of the religious and laic areas of communicating, of trying to find a common denominator. Cultivating dialogue in the sense of knowledge and tolerance, of respect for ethnic, religious and cultural diversity becomes all the more urgent. There is no evolving unless we build strong bonds among nations, communities and people and we show the deserving respect to the culture of dialogue and exercise the art of welcoming," reads the message.
Saying that "denominational diversity as well ethnic diversity are Romania's riches" and as a man and a politician he 'cherishes religious spirituality that played a fundamental part in the resistance against totalitarianism," Iohannis points out that "beliefs and convictions have to be respected as historical components of identities as well as important contributors to our society getting healthy."
"That is why respecting the liberty and autonomy of religious denominations in relation with the government as well as the government's neutrality toward all the denominations is in the national interest, and so is the rejection by the denominations of any form of politicisation or radicalisation of their speech as well as of fundamentalism and preaching instead the spirit of tolerance and mutual respect among citizens, irrespective of their opinions and beliefs," said Iohannis.
In the President's opinion, "school is par excellence the place where people learn what dialogue, tolerance, acceptance of diversity as a factor of human development and progress are."
"The commitments pledged under the 'Educated Romania' national project are designed to inspire and support the long-term development of Romania's education system. All the citizens of Romania, irrespective of ethnic or religious backgrounds, have an equal right to education for a better life," said Iohannis.
He added that, "although global society is defined rather in terms of secularism, the increasing part of spirituality and religion on the world stages as well as at the level of local communities is an undeniable reality."
"There is a significant tradition of harmonious coexistence in Romania among communities of different ethnic and religious backgrounds. I am inviting you to deepen it and develop it by your speeches to this international conference; let us develop it in our daily lives as a precious heritage that we have to bequeath to our children," Iohannis said in a message read out by his adviser Sergiu Nistor to the conference on religious education between radicalism and tolerance.
