Hi Goesh,
LOLOL You should hear what my students call me .
I think we are seeing a really interesting phenomena. Let me place this within Canada since a) I know it best and b) it is overtly "multi-cultural".
First, we have a general belief in "religious tolerance" that pre-dates most of the rest of the Anglo culture complex (1760 surrender of Quebec, reiterated in the 1774 Quebec Act). The interesting thing is that we have never said that we would adapt or absorb any core values of another religion, only that we would let them practice their beliefs as long as they did not interfere with any individuals choice of religion. Britain eventually adopted a similar position.
In effect, "man-made" law, at least in the matter of religious toleration, was sen as superior to any interpretation of "God's Law".
Sure, that encapsulates Canada's views on multiculturalism almost perfectly. We have taken an extremely Protestant position, est encapsulated in the words of Oliver Cromwell - "Brethren, I beseach ye in the name of Christ to consider that ye may be wrong". As the basis of social tolerance, I think this is a pretty good situation .
True but, again historically, we tend to find this in overtly polytheistic cultures mre than monotheistic ones. A friend of mine, Dr. Krishna Mohan Reddy has been looking into this in the context of Hindus integrating into other societies. When it comes to overtly monotheistic religions, the pattern tends to be different: some of the specifics of interpretation and practice may change but, overall, the core content stays the same.
LOLOL Yeah. I've worked with a number of Muslims over the years and, on the whole, have gotten on quite well with them. I must admit that, personally, I don't like the extreme multiculturalist position - it is too reminiscent of knee-jerk cultural relativism (and that's a long rant too ).
Marc
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