US less tolerant more suspicious after 9/11: Theologist

Chennai:

 United States is now becoming less tolerant and in some circles more and more suspicious after the 9/11 incident and there is a need to create Christian-Muslim understanding, according to a US theologist.

Speaking to Express after the Compassionate Listening Workshop, which is part of the Academic Conference for Inter-Religious Tolerance and Peace Building organised by Women’s Christian College, Prof Marianne Farina of Dominican School of Philosphy and Theology in Berkley, California, said after the 9/11 there has been growing distrust of certain groups and the US government has started profiling them.

She said the distrust could be removed by creating better networks and learning from religion and culture besides cross-cultural understanding at grassroot level and the role of inter-faith groups in making America strong.

“The only stumbling block is the ignorance,” she said adding that one can accept a person without agreeing to him.

Citing the example of India, she said India, which is diverse in culture and religion, has learnt to hold all tensions together without going up in flames and the world has to learn from it.

She also rued the fact that the wired world has taken away the quality of presence of each other making people social misfits. They are busy browsing the Internet as well as social networking sites or using the mobile phones or watching television.

“The technology has allowed us to multi-task and we are not able to think deeply. The failure to think is a problem,” the professor, who is a religious sister of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana, said.