The challenge for multi-faith countries such as Malaysia and the United States does not lie merely in handling religious diversity, but in promoting engagement and understanding among followers of different religions.

"Pluralism is not diversity alone but the energetic engagement with that diversity," explained Prof Diana Eck (photo) of Harvard University, in a keynote address at an international conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

The two-day International Conference on Religious Pluralism in Democratic Societies: Challenges and Prospects for the United States and Southeast Asia in the New Millennium was organised by the Malaysian Association for American Studies.

US ambassador to Malaysia, Marie T Huhtala, and association chairperson Prof K S Nathan attended the opening session this morning.

Religious ghettoes

Eck said that she disagreed with the simple notion that 'diversity is excellent", saying that diversity could be dealt with in both "excellent" or "impoverished" ways.

"We can ignore those who are different from us and isolate ourselves from them, or we can encounter them as fellow citizens and as neighbours from other faiths," she said.

She warned, too, that diversity could create 'religious ghettos' with little traffic between the communities involved.

"In the new world in which we live, pluralism is not a given but an achievement out of a fabric of diversity. (And) diversity without real encounter (or) engagement will become increasing difficult," she said.

Dialogues and encounters

She further said that pluralism is not just about tolerance.

"Tolerance is great. Tolerance is important. Tolerance is often the expression of the majority towards the minority a public virtue, but it doesn't necessarily requires us to know anything else about each other," she said.

"Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews and ardent secularists need to know more about one another in the world we live."

Eck pointed out that tolerance alone was a thin foundation and that it would not be able to eliminate ignorance. This would sustain stereotypes and half-truths that could lead to division and violence.

"The new paradigm of pluralism does not require that we leave our identities and commitments behind. Pluralism is the encounter of those commitments. It means holding our deepest differences, even our religious differences, not in isolation but in relationship," she said.

"The language of pluralism is the language of dialogues and encounters, give-and-take and criticisms and self-criticisms. (In today's world) it is the language that we need to learn."