Multifaith Society: Imagination or Not ?

There are many religions in this worlds. They are Islam, Christian, Hindu, and many other religions. Every people has own reason to embrace one of them. In this case, the position of religon is very personal and private. Therefore, one can not force other people to embrace his religion.
Usually, in the society, there are more than two religions. It can be called as multifaith society. In this society, people have to create a truly tolerant multifaith society. In Islam, it was known as madani society. Historically, madani term comes from madinah. It is a city which is near from mekka. Madinah was built by Prophet Muhammad after he had moved from Mekka. Originally, before madinah term was given by Muhammad, it had been called as Yastrib. By giving ‘madinah’ name, he hoped that people in Madinah could keep a truly tolerant although there were three different religions at that time. They were Jew, Christian and Islam.
From the expalanation above, one can see that a long time ago, people could create a truly tolerant multifaith society. Today, many scholars have seen that Indonesia is one example of multifaith society since there are six religions in this country. Among six religions, Islam is the majority religion. However, in its experince, Indonesia faced many religious conflicts. The most recently religious conflict was ‘poso’ conflict. It is a conflict between christian and islam adherents. As a result, thousands people were killed. Although this conflict has been settled, it does not means that this kind of conflict will not happen again in the future.
In every place in this worlds, religious conflict is one of the most dangerous conflict. If this conflict occurs, it will cause many victims. Therefore, people should be tolerant when they live in multifaith society. Tolerance is a key in keeping peaceful condition in the society.
Therefore, the question is whether people can create a truly tolerant multifaith society now. I believe that we can create it. However, this opinion cannot be realized easily. In the first stage, people must have a good understanding with other religions. This understanding can be built through many kind of activities. One of them is a dialogue. Through a dialogue, many differences can be discussed. If the differences in religion are always solved by violence, it will cause religious conflict. On the contrary, if these differences can be discussed through dialogue, it will create a good understanding among people in multifaith society.
Next step is by convincing the religious leaders to participate in creating a truly tolerant in the society. This step is very crucial since the religious leaders have important position in the society, particularly in the village. Sometimes, religious leaders are more respected than government officials. The religious leaders have loyal followers in the society. In some cases, the religious leaders usually provoke their followers to attack other religion adherents. Therefore, if the religious leaders have a good understanding in creating religious harmony, it is not very difficult to create a truly tolerant multifaith society.
From the explanation above, it can be concluded that it is not easy to create a truly tolerant multifaith society. Based on the history, there was a tolerant multifaith society in Madinah. Nowadays, it is challenging, particularly in Indonesia, to create this society. However, there are two steps that can be considered in order to create this ideal society. The first step is through a dialogue. This step can create a good understanding in the society. The next step is by inviting the religious leaders to make religious harmony in multifaith society.