Authorities drilled on religious tolerance

Some 78 religious leaders and 12 teachers of public and private schools in the Centre Region have been trained on religious tolerance.

The training took place in Yaounde and was organised by the Center for the Promotion of Law, CEPROD, supported by the Canadian High Commission in Yaounde.

The participants were drilled on basic human and communal rights; philosophical and judicial fundamentals of religious tolerance; religious liberty and tolerance and the charter of tolerance of religion.

“At times, crimes are committed in the name of religion.

Yesterday the happenings were seemingly very far away from us but today, some of the things are happening in our country. So, through the workshop, we are getting the citizens to know more about the law and work within that law to ensure that peace continues to reign in Cameroon,” said Barrister Michel, Chairperson of CEPROD.

Barrister Togué said everyone is now coming to terms with deviant happenings around the world that are leading to conflicts which are increasingly linked to religious differences.

According to Togué, the religious authorities from the religious related Civil Society Organisations are expected to relay the information received during the training to members of their groups or communities.

He said religious tolerance calls for the peaceful co-existence of members of various religions with due respect of one another.

The same training is programmed for Garoua and Douala this January 2016.

Togué said considering the current fluid security environment in the country, other donor institutions could come to their aid to extend the training to the other Regions.

One of the participants, Bishop Joseph Agbor Eta of the National Pastor of the New Community Methodist Church of Cameroon, said, “We should not always wait for things to degenerate before taking action. Now that this type of thing is happening elsewhere in the world, it may reach us one day, and so we must be working to pre-empt it. The message I am taking home to my brethren is that there is no religion that preaches violence. All are teaching peace, and we cannot have the peace without tolerating one another. If we love, we will be tolerant.”

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of CEPROD, Michel Manfouo, said as a lay religious state, Cameroon today has a multitude of religious communities with greater representations being Christians, Moslems, traditionalists, animists and Gnostics.

Manfouo noted that before now, the different religious communities operated harmoniously. But today, increasing disputes have been registered between them and even amongst members of the same religious communities.

He cited the activities of Boko Haram in the North with some people developing hostile attitudes towards members of the Muslim community in the country; shutting down of churches on the request of some leaders; complaints of disturbances during worship services by Pentecostal churches; differences between religious believers and traditionalists, as aspects of religious intolerance which must be checked.