Article: Promoting pluralism abroad must be a foreign policy pillar – The Globe and Mail

NEIL DESAI and CHARLES BURTON
From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail – Published Wednesday, Apr. 13, 2011

Religion, in its purest form, can be a force for good. All religions promote values of morality, honesty, understanding and protection for the disadvantaged. Moreover, religion is the key to cultural and ethnic self-identity for people around the world.

But religious differences have long been a source of ethnic clashes within and between nations, including Muslim and Christian conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa, the Near East and the former Yugoslavia, the suppression of Tibetans and Uyghurs by the Chinese Communist regime, anti-Semitism, the persecution of Baha’is – the list goes on and on. –snip–

It suggests that Canada has fundamental values, such as the respect for pluralism, freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and that we should be proud to share our experience with the world. Our success has not gone unnoticed. The Aga Khan, one of the world’s greatest promoters of tolerance, selected Canada as the home of his Global Centre for Pluralism.

This global respect for Canada’s pluralistic society has not come just because of our relative tolerance of newcomers but also the willingness of our government and Canadians at large to stand up for those persecuted for their religious, political or cultural heritage.

via Promoting pluralism abroad must be a foreign policy pillar – The Globe and Mail.