The idea is that young children will become used to diversity naturally and hopefully grow to become adults who are respectful of religions other than their own.
FOR three consecutive years I’ve been invited to speak to a group of Norwegian students visiting Malaysia about the work that my colleagues and I do on Muslim women’s rights.
These students are learning about different faiths in order to be better able to teach comparative religion back home in Norway.
Instead of merely learning about all these religions in theory, every year, their university organises a trip for them to visit various South-East Asian countries to observe first-hand how these religions are lived and practised.
In Norway, every child learns about comparative religion from the age of six with the idea that they will grow up understanding the diversity of faiths and beliefs in their society and the world today, and respecting all the faiths equally.
The books they use are vetted and approved by the respective religious authorities, so, for example, the Norwegian Islamic authorities approve the books on Islam.
The students who came to listen to me will eventually become the teachers of those Norwegian school kids.
Lest anyone think they only get to listen to “liberals” like me, they also meet and talk to all sorts of people with knowledge on the religious landscape in our country, including in our universities.
This is to ensure that they get a balanced picture of things in Malaysia.
I was really impressed by this approach by the Norwegian government to address potential issues in a rapidly diversifying society.
Obviously, one of the ways to avoid conflict in society is by ensuring that everybody understands each other.
Including comparative religion in their school curriculum from the earliest years means that young children will become used to religious and cultural diversity naturally and hopefully will grow to become adults who are respectful of religions other than their own.
In a study comparing the English and Norwegian comparative religious curriculums and how schoolchildren reacted to them, most of the students viewed the classes positively, with one student saying, “It is important to understand religions in order to understand humans, sort of improving our social intelligence a little.”
It is interesting that Norway, with a population of under six million people, 82% of whom are Lutheran Christian, is so concerned about the possible conflict that ethnic and religious diversity might cause that from 1997 the country decided to educate people on other religions.
Undoubtedly, the concern was well-founded when in 2011, Anders Behring Breivik, a self-confessed fascist and hater of multi-culturalism, murdered 77 people, blaming Norway for allowing immigrants into the country.
Norway, too, is home to many right-wing groups claiming white supremacy and that Muslims are taking over Norway, despite being all of 3.6% of the population.
Perhaps it is in the nature of supremacist groups everywhere to make up stories about threats to their people without the need for supporting evidence.
Still, the policy of educating children about religions other than their own is a step in the right direction.
And bringing students to countries where those other religions are the faith of the majority helps to humanise those faiths, and prevents the stereotyping that extremists like to do.
It’s too bad that if anyone were to raise the issue of including comparative religion lessons in our schools, our own religious supremacists would undoubtedly go ballistic, claiming that this was a plot by a Muslim-majority government to Christianise their people, as ironic as that may sound.
Obviously, supremacists all work from the same manual.
There is no evidence that learning about different religions in school, with each (including atheism by the way) given equal weight, has led to the conversions of anyone to another religion.
It does, however, based on my experience with these Norwegian students, lead to far more intelligent questions than from those of my own faith.
Meanwhile, few people here in Malaysia are coming up with any bright ideas on how to reduce the polarisation that everyone acknowledges is a growing problem in our society.
The best that anyone can come up with is putting everyone in the same school, which would be a good solution if the standard of education in those schools was higher (as measured globally) and if everyone was taught to respect differences.
But the way they are now, even many Muslims do not want to send their children there if they can afford it.
Our children live in a multi-religious society where they won’t be able to avoid noticing that different people worship differently.
If they ask questions of adults around them, do we take our inability to answer as a personal affront or as an opportunity to learn?
The former is the arrogant way while the latter is more humble.
Which should we choose if we genuinely want peace and harmony?
FOR three consecutive years I’ve been invited to speak to a group of Norwegian students visiting Malaysia about the work that my colleagues and I do on Muslim women’s rights.
These students are learning about different faiths in order to be better able to teach comparative religion back home in Norway.
Instead of merely learning about all these religions in theory, every year, their university organises a trip for them to visit various South-East Asian countries to observe first-hand how these religions are lived and practised.
In Norway, every child learns about comparative religion from the age of six with the idea that they will grow up understanding the diversity of faiths and beliefs in their society and the world today, and respecting all the faiths equally.
The books they use are vetted and approved by the respective religious authorities, so, for example, the Norwegian Islamic authorities approve the books on Islam.
The students who came to listen to me will eventually become the teachers of those Norwegian school kids.
Lest anyone think they only get to listen to “liberals” like me, they also meet and talk to all sorts of people with knowledge on the religious landscape in our country, including in our universities.
This is to ensure that they get a balanced picture of things in Malaysia.
I was really impressed by this approach by the Norwegian government to address potential issues in a rapidly diversifying society.
Obviously, one of the ways to avoid conflict in society is by ensuring that everybody understands each other.
Including comparative religion in their school curriculum from the earliest years means that young children will become used to religious and cultural diversity naturally and hopefully will grow to become adults who are respectful of religions other than their own.
In a study comparing the English and Norwegian comparative religious curriculums and how schoolchildren reacted to them, most of the students viewed the classes positively, with one student saying, “It is important to understand religions in order to understand humans, sort of improving our social intelligence a little.”
It is interesting that Norway, with a population of under six million people, 82% of whom are Lutheran Christian, is so concerned about the possible conflict that ethnic and religious diversity might cause that from 1997 the country decided to educate people on other religions.
Undoubtedly, the concern was well-founded when in 2011, Anders Behring Breivik, a self-confessed fascist and hater of multi-culturalism, murdered 77 people, blaming Norway for allowing immigrants into the country.
Norway, too, is home to many right-wing groups claiming white supremacy and that Muslims are taking over Norway, despite being all of 3.6% of the population.
Perhaps it is in the nature of supremacist groups everywhere to make up stories about threats to their people without the need for supporting evidence.
Still, the policy of educating children about religions other than their own is a step in the right direction.
And bringing students to countries where those other religions are the faith of the majority helps to humanise those faiths, and prevents the stereotyping that extremists like to do.
It’s too bad that if anyone were to raise the issue of including comparative religion lessons in our schools, our own religious supremacists would undoubtedly go ballistic, claiming that this was a plot by a Muslim-majority government to Christianise their people, as ironic as that may sound.
Obviously, supremacists all work from the same manual.
There is no evidence that learning about different religions in school, with each (including atheism by the way) given equal weight, has led to the conversions of anyone to another religion.
It does, however, based on my experience with these Norwegian students, lead to far more intelligent questions than from those of my own faith.
Meanwhile, few people here in Malaysia are coming up with any bright ideas on how to reduce the polarisation that everyone acknowledges is a growing problem in our society.
The best that anyone can come up with is putting everyone in the same school, which would be a good solution if the standard of education in those schools was higher (as measured globally) and if everyone was taught to respect differences.
But the way they are now, even many Muslims do not want to send their children there if they can afford it.
Our children live in a multi-religious society where they won’t be able to avoid noticing that different people worship differently.
If they ask questions of adults around them, do we take our inability to answer as a personal affront or as an opportunity to learn?
The former is the arrogant way while the latter is more humble.
Which should we choose if we genuinely want peace and harmony?
