By Muhammad Irfan
GOMBAK, 19 October 2021: Tolerance and acceptance became the topic of discussions at the Liqa’ session yesterday to mark the International Day for Tolerance on 16 November where the panels examined the definition of the terms to enhance communication across different backgrounds.
The Liqa’ organised by Perkim Club IIUM, was joined by two speakers namely, Asst. Prof. Dr. Ayman Al-Akiti from the Usul Al-Din Department IIUM Gombak and Mr. Shamsuddin from Human Sciences Department IIUM Gambang.
The Liqa’ explored the definition of tolerance and acceptance and also took a look at the terms from an Islamic perspective.
“Tolerance means there is no rejection on behaviour while acceptance means there is no rejection in the mind,” said Mr. Shamsuddin.
“In Islamic perspective, tolerance means something that could be acknowledged despite having different opinions while acceptance in regards to tolerance, means something that people can coexist with” Dr. Ayman Al-Akiti stated.
The two-hour programme emphasised the challenges of tolerance and acceptance in the community while also discussing how to communicate with people from different backgrounds.
Dr. Ayman Al-Akiti said, “The world changed after the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate, thus there are new challenges that arose as people from different backgrounds started to enter the Muslim nations. This is where it is important to differentiate what can be tolerated and what can be accepted”
Mr. Shamsuddin emphasised that to communicate with people from different backgrounds, it is important to understand the situation where we are interacting with them. Through this, we would be able to have compassion and decide whether their behaviors are tolerable or acceptable.
The Liqa’ also touched on a bigger issue of LGBTQ. The speakers talked about tolerance towards the LGBTQ community and gave a psychological explanation on the LGBTQ community.
“We need to understand that firstly LGBTQ is clearly forbidden in Islam and is a threat to the Aqidah, hence we should not accept or tolerate with the LGBTQ community. However, there is a right way to help this community and we should approach them and give guidance to them,” Dr. Ayman Al-Akiti stressed.
Mr. Shamsuddin added, “There are a lot of factors that cause people to be influenced into the LGBTQ community. Social reasons are one of the main reasons such as lack of Islamic exposure and also lack of confrontation from their environment.
However, despite a lot of research done, there is no exact reason why someone could be influenced by LGBTQ”.
The event ended with a Q&A session between the viewers and the speakers.
The Liqa’ was streamed live on Perkim Club IIUM Gombak Youtube channel from 3.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. and viewed by more than 250 people. ***