Calls for tolerance are often heard in the media today. This concept means a tolerant attitude towards another person, the recognition of existing differences. Tolerance implies respect for another faith, customs, a different skin color, opinion. Some tend to see it as softness and inability to force a person to live according to the rules of society, but this is not so.
A person who is tolerant of others does not impose his beliefs on anyone, recognizing the right to have others. A tolerant society is characterized by the absence of aggression and incitement to national hatred, the desire to take into account the mentality of other peoples, the peculiarities of their life and the requirements of the faith they profess, but tolerance does not mean recognition of those customs that contradict the moral foundations of society. For example, the practice of stoning women suspected of adultery, which exists in some Muslim countries, is condemned by the international community, which uses its influence to eradicate it. Tolerance implies a desire to consider and understand the incentives for antisocial or immoral actions, but does not mean accepting them. It is expressed in the help that a tolerant society is ready to provide to those people who have stumbled and lost their way. Religious or moral ascetics often become models of tolerant attitude, demonstrating by their example a tolerant attitude towards those who do not share their views. This is a sign of a civilized society, its high spiritual and moral development. Without tolerance, it becomes impossible for the stable existence of many states, the population of which is made up of people of different nationalities, professing different faiths and adhering to their customs. This concept is instilled in all followers of the world's largest religions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism. Tolerance of society is a condition for countering racism and infringement of the rights of citizens on a national basis. Intolerance and rejection of the right to differences become the cause of xenophobia and prejudice, forcing people to group into isolated societies of “theirs” and experience aggression towards “strangers”. Lack of tolerance is a sign of a society's illness, which inhibits its development. In the modern world, characterized by globalization processes in the economy and the rapid development of communications, any intolerance is potentially dangerous for all countries.
