The Problem of Religious Tolerance in Kazakhstan: Past and Present

Abstract

The problem of the religious tolerance culture that helps to preserve socio-political stability in the society has become a significant theoretical and practical research problem. In the paper, the authors analyse the activities of some religious organisations in Kazakhstan trying to identify the ways of forming a culture of religious tolerance. They focus on the role of Islam, Orthodox Christianity, and Catholicism in the context of interfaith dialogue and assess the experience of preserving interethnic and interconfessional relations.

The authors argue that tolerance in a multi-ethnic society implies not only recognition of the existing ethno cultural, religious, and confessional differences within the community but also the awareness of the "unity in diversity". The latter helps to prevent the existing ethno cultural differences from the institutionalised dominance. The authors also note that the common civic identity ensures the "unity in diversity" in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Keywords

religious tolerance, multiethnic society, ethnopolitics, Hanafi madhhab, intercultural, inter-language tolerance

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