I am seeing some of my Hindu friends publishing more and more intolerant items about Islam. I was hoping this Tulsi Gabbard video might make them stop and think. They don’t seem to see in this video what I see. Tulsi Gabbard’s Unifying Keynote Address at Muslims for Peace Conference.

I put this here on my blog so that I have easy access to it as a response to the hate speech against Islam when I see it.

Just to be clear, I am in the cohort that Tulsi mentions that does not follow any spiritual path, nor believe in any religion, nor any supreme being. Maybe that’s why I feel it easier to let go of some of my childhood prejudices.

I should also say something about the word “tolerance”. I want to refer to a book I read, but I just cannot quite recall enough to bring it up to quote it. I guess this will have to do. Genuine Respect for Other Faiths.

Hindu Dharma believes that no particular religion is better than another; all genuine religious paths are facets of Bhagwan’s pure love and light, deserving tolerance and understanding. Hindu Sanatan Dharma not only teaches tolerance for other religions but respect as well.

I just found the book Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism by Rajiv Malhotra.

Rajiv Malhotra’s insistence on preserving difference with mutual respect not with mere tolerance is even more pertinent today because the notion of a single universalism is being propounded. There can be no single universalism, even if it assimilates or, in the author’s words, digests , elements from other civilizations –Kapila Vatsyayan