Many cultures throughout history have contributed to the development of philosophy and knowledge, which has enriched human thought by promoting coexistence and dialogue
between cultures, and many researchers have devoted themselves to the study of comparative cultures. Indeed, culture is a key element in shaping identity and the best way to know about the members of a culture is to learn about the culture itself. Culture has overlapped with religion, and religion in turn has became part of culture to the extent that it has become identified or even confused with it.
Despite the fact that there are many communities in any given society, the division of societies into a majority that is eager to dominate and an apprehensive, oppressed minority has kept human societies divided culturally and religiously, separated for a long time by barriers of language, geography, race, fear, and sometimes hatred.
However direct contact between populations, increasingly widespread since the beginning of last century, has meant that knowledge of other cultures, once the domain only of those who wanted to acquire it, has become a necessity. The other has become very close; barriers have started to collapse. The other has become a tourist you might encounter, an immigrant who might live near you, a merchant you buy from, a colleague you study with, or work with, or a neighbor with whom you share facilities in your block. You must know who you are dealing with, and the limits set by their culture.
One person might look on certain issues as simple from their cultural prospective, but another might view these same issues as sensitive and critical, so dealing with them lightly will cause hostility, which we as a society can do without.
If we accept that religions and philosophies in general have all called for the same human values, we inevitably come to an understanding that the differences and disputes between their followers are because of a misunderstanding of their own beliefs, a perversion of the basis and purpose of those beliefs.
We can infer this by showing the disputes that divided the world into East and West, between the monotheistic religions Islam, Christianity and Judaism and other non monotheistic religions, have known no limits.
In fact, among these religions we can now find numerous groups that disagree among each other and regard their co-religionists with hostility, often with more hostility than they regard others.
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