INTERACTION IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD
Today, we live in a globalized world, where there is much interaction between people from different religious backgrounds. Interaction is unannounced dialogue. When positive interaction between people who subscribe to different belief systems grows, the purpose of dialogue is served on its own.
Today, we live in a globalized world. The industrial revolution and modern communications have added such vast dimensions to human relations that the entire world has been converted into a veritable global village. With distances drastically shortened, a confrontational attitude must give way to compromise, adjustment, and appreciation.
Today, people who hold different religious beliefs are coming closer to each other on a global scale. This interaction serves as an informal and ongoing inter-religious dialogue. Interaction in itself is unannounced dialogue. As a result of circumstances, when positive interactions between people of different beliefs increase, the purpose of dialogue is served on its own.
Today, in educational institutions and offices and through various national and international activities, adherents of different religious traditions are meeting on a scale hitherto never witnessed before. During this continuous and vast interaction, people from different backgrounds seem less like strangers to each other. A great gap has been bridged. People are learning new languages in order to interact with each other. They are also becoming familiar with one another’s cultures and religions. Making concessions to one another has become a basic social need.
These factors have brought people all over the world closer. Moreover, it is a psychological truth that closeness and interaction serve the purpose of practical dialogue. In this way, a natural dialogue has come into existence and has become an ongoing process at all times and in all places. Probably the most dramatic result of this historical process is that religious intolerance has been universally rejected in theory after a long intellectual struggle. At the theory level, religious intolerance has now been replaced with complete religious freedom. Today, under the auspices of the United Nations, all the world nations have signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This Declaration has accepted religious freedom as a natural birthright of all human beings. As opposed to practices in ancient times, today, in theory, at least, no one can persecute anyone based on religion. This change has elevated the sphere of religious differences to that of peaceful negotiation.
The effects of this change can be seen in all walks of life. Every one of us, consciously or unconsciously, plays a part in making peaceful inter-religious coexistence a reality. Inter-religious dialogue becoming a part of the historical process holds great promise for us, as in this way, its success is assured. This is how every great revolution in history has got underway. Whenever a movement goes beyond the stage of individual or group efforts and joins the historical process itself, the continuity of the movement is ensured, and nothing can stop it from reaching its goal.
