Cultural Socialization and Its Relation to the Attitude of Religious Tolerance among Muslim and Buddhist Students in Prince of Songkhla University

Abstract

Religion guides human towards peace, tranquillity and happiness. However, there are people who are not tied to any religion, belief, faith and belief, known as the 'atheism' (the belief that denies the existence of Allah) (Anuar 2003: 109). There is no doubt that people often hear the word religion in daily life. The word 'religion' has been increasingly difficult to be defined accurately. Mukti Ali, an expert in comparative religion considers the difficulty in defining the meaning of religion is that religious practice is a subjective matter, discussions about religion should be composed of spirit or strong emotions and conceptions of religion will be influenced by the purpose of the person who gives the meaning of religion itself (Diaz 2006). This statement is consistent with expression of W.C. Smith as quoted by Ramli Awang (2008: 17) where, It's not excessive if we say that so far, there is no true definition of religion and be accepted.Therefore, none of the definition of religion can be generally accepted. However, people could not be separated by religion, because religion is an important contribution to mankind and religion also serves to uphold human civilization, in which history has shown that none of the great people and have a great empire without being accompanied by religion (Sulaiman Ibrahim 2003: 150). This means that every human being must have religion in their lives. Generally, every religion and faith play an important role towards devotees, among others, as a function of social control, religion gives value to a group of human togetherness, religion gives a worldview to every human culture and religion is able to answer all questions that are able to be answered by human beings (Ramli 2008: 33-34).According to Ramli (2008: 33-34) religion and belief are two things that are very relevant. However, religion has a wider meaning which refers to a comprehensive system of belief while faith refers to the divine aspect. Hence, the belief that only involves one individual is usually not considered as a religion. On the other hand, religion should involve a human community. Thus, religion is a phenomenon of society which can be traced through the action (prayer and ritual customs), attitude (respect and affection), statement (spells) and tangible things (building mosques, temples, etc.). This shows that religion has direct relevance to the ethics of society and not just a matter of the relationship between human and God, but also about the human relationship with humans.In this regard, Islam accepts the fact of the existence of non-Muslims and is also part of the community. The existence of non-Muslims in Muslim societies is a stipulation of Allah. This is because Allah s.w.t gives freedom to human to choose their own beliefs (Ainon 2003: 25). Allah s.w.t says in Surah al-Kahf, which means: And Say (O Muhammad): The truth is from your Lord, so anyone who wants to believe let him believe and whosoever will disbelieve, let him deny it. The meaning of the verse above emphasizes that Islam gives freedom to every human to believe or disbelieve. Sayyid Qutb interpreted this verse Those who are not bound by the truth that comes from Allah, it is free for them and those who do not want to make themselves as followers of what come from Allah, there is no compulsion for them (Jawiah 2008: 182). Based on the above verse as a whole, reflecting that people are given the opportunity to think and choose between right and that is not true. Therefore, this result appeared in various religions, beliefs and teachings based on the thinking in this world.Thus, social conflict or misunderstanding in religion resulting from the difference was considered normal in any society that is multi-religious or ethnic groups. This is because every religion has its principles and different teaching of religion such as, different perception of God, different life after death, different method of ritual worship and so forth (Ghazali 2009: 14. …