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...theocracy power Iraq. A wide variety of institutional forms, many of which do not resemble American constitutionalism, can express and secure respect for pluralism. If that respect is absent, however, nation-builders will have no choice but to enforce tolerance, or to abandon beleaguered minorities to their fate.
James Carroll puts it well: "The challenge for religions of all kinds, but perhaps especially for religions based on narratives of divine revelation, is to make positive assertions of faith that do not simultaneously denigrate the different tenets of faith held by others." Those who believe that there are many paths to God, or that it is not given to finite humans to know which is the right path to the Infinite God, will find it relatively easy to embrace religious pluralism.
Genuine fundamentalists cannot accept either of these beliefs. Fundamentalists may however believe that other faiths are on the same (right) path although they cannot reach the end--the one true faith. They may also believe that it is wrong to use coercion as an instrument of religious conversion.
Each of these beliefs finds textual support as well as opposition within Islam. For example, in the Koran (al-Baraqah 2:62) we find the following: "Verily, those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians and Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and do righteous good deeds shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve." Much depends on the ability of the proponents of a genuinely Islamic pluralism to broaden public support for a generous and accommodating interpretation of their shared tradition.
Acceptance of pluralism comes more easily to religions that emphasize...
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