CHANGING U.S. ROLE OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM changing role relig U.S.

When I volunteered in a museum, one of the exhibits that passed through was a collection of Buddhist artwork. One of the displays featured the "Bamiyan Buddhas," two ancient statues that had been recently destroyed in Afghanistan by Al Qaeda. These were the largest stone Buddhas in the world, and apparently the Taliban locals would not destroy them so extremists had to be imported (Martin, 2005, p. 76). Now Muslim fundamentalists have destroyed another 30 historic Buddhist relics, again on grounds of iconoclasm, in the island of Maldives (Bajaj, 2012, n.p.). This illustrates the changing role of religious pluralism...

6). Any religion that promulgates a Golden Rule binds itself to at least tolerance of, if not dialogue with, religious neighbors. In the United States, religious pluralism is protected as a civil right, and while violence toward person and property unfortunately exists, the radical Muslim type of iconoclasm described by Bajaj in the Maldives…