There is no question, in my mind, that tolerance is under threat today. This Enlightenment ideal - one of the most important, radical Enlightenment ideals - is being assaulted and undermined around Europe.
However, it is being undermined not only by governments and thinkers who want to ban the burqa, but also by some of those who defend women’s right to wear the burqa. Tolerance is being denigrated first by those who refuse to tolerate the burqa - and second by those who defend ‘burqa rights’ in a very shallow, relativistic fashion and who clearly don’t have the first clue what tolerance really means.
Read Full Article »