Tolerance and Respect= Peace Among Societies

Ramadan states “We are at the crossroad. The time has come for women and men who reject the dangerous divisions into two worlds to start building bridges between two universes that share common values” (156). I agree completely with Ramadan. In order for the world to find some peace, the Islamic community and western communities must learn to at least tolerate one another. Clearly, the current solutions (the war, the cartoons, the protests) are not helping the situation. The two societies cannot function among the presence of one another, if the western culture does not understand that the Muslim presence is valuable to the western society. Ramadan says “People must begin to learn once again that Muslim thought, ever since the Middle Ages, has been an integral part of the construction of Western development” (171). At the same time, the Muslim community needs to make adjustments as well and realize that western culture is important too. Both cultures need to appreciate the other.
Currently the situation is polarized and continually getting worse. The Danish cartoon is an example of the ignorance, and intolerant behavior that polarizes the two societies from one another. We must respect one another and not see the other side as “them”. Every person involved in this situation is a human. Therefore, each person deserves not to be categorized and disrespected by the other. I agree with Ramadan that legislation will not cure the problems between the two communities. As humans we should be able to restrain ourselves from being malicious, prejudice, and narrow-minded behaviors. We all have multiple identities as Ramadan explains. These multiple identities learn to coincide with one another despite the fact they may conflict. Just like the case of individual identities, the communities must cooperate and cope with one another. For the good of both societies, mutual respect and tolerance must be established. Together, the societies have to agree to make changes, and as Ramadan says “It is up to us to choose” (156).