PRESIDENT Jakaya Kikwete has called for inter- religious harmony in the world, saying that intoleration is fuelled by ignorance of what other faiths stand for.
Addressing a special forum whose theme was ''Managing Religious Diversity in a Democratic Environment'' at the Boston University in the US on Monday, Mr Kikwete hinted that it is possible for America to advance and maintain relations with countries that have substantial Muslim population.
President Kikwete said that the world has to pray and work hard for understanding and toleration across the religious divide.
He told his audience that the world must avoid at all costs, debasing, ridiculing, belittling, speaking down upon or looking down upon the faiths of others, adding: "We should even try to avoid to be perceived to do that".
"At times. it is merely a matter of perception than anything else...people have emotional attachment to their religions and, as a result, they tend to react emotionally or even irrationally when they perceive their religions as being demeaned", he added.
President Kikwete said nations, including Tanzania, should continue to avoid mixing politics and religion at all costs.
He said that in a country with big numbers of both Muslims and Christians, there is no need at all for acrimony or conflict.
Mr Kikwete said that the so-called clash of civilisations that many contend dominates global politics is not something that is inevitable and that religious diversity is not inevitably a source of conflict or destabilisation.
"It is my strong considered view that whenever it happens, it is a sign that something has gone wrong and that the political and religious leaders need to do more to rise to the challenge. In most cases, it has to do with the way people relate to each other in the name of their religions", he said.
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He also discounted the notion that the religious, ethnic or cultural make-up of a society has a bearing on the propensity of that society to be democratic, saying that there are nations that are predominantly Muslim or non-Christian which are vibrant democracies.
Daily News; Wednesday,September 27, 2006
Tanzania,
is a country on the east coast of east Africa. 
