It always strikes me when incidents like the recent shooting in a gay bar in the USA, it makes me realize that even in a racially diversified modern society built on immigrants there are still people who couldn't appreciate liberty (a main characteristic of a civilized society) and have no tolerance on diversity.
The people who conducted those hate crimes, often argue they did it out of their religious belief. I am not into any religions but I often doubt that god really tells them so. Compassion and drive for harmony are actually encouraged as the solutions for a lot of conflict issues and different opinions. So the way I see it is that the extremists often use religion as a disguise for the cruelty of their conduct.
But more understanding about each others' culture, especially between east and west, which will naturally turn into certain respect for others' religious or social norms, can definitely minimze the clashes and make the world a more harmonious and peaceful place to live. The ongoing Islamic uproar against the Danish cartoons unveiling Islamic prophesy is a typical unease that could have been avoided. Freedom of speech and expession is important, but the question is when this kind of publication could only do harm rather than drive progress in a extremely sensitive religious community, it is probably not a wise act. We should stick to our values and principles, but sometimes for complex issues, we need to approach it in a smarter and progressive manner.
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