| A few years ago an immigrant family from the Near East took over the management of a popular coffee shop in the California neighborhood where I was living until recently. They were adherents of a small and rather tight-knit religious group, one I was unfamiliar with, I must admit, and whose beliefs made many demands on its followers' daily lives.
Because of their immigrant status and a history of persecution in the country they came from, and because of the tight discipline within their own group, they appeared to be rather standoffish in their relations with the rest of us.
Then late one night, around closing time, the cafe was robbed by an unknown assailant, and the father of the family was shot and seriously wounded. Everyone, of course, was very upset -- both by the armed violence in our own neighborhood and by the terrible misfortune that hit this family.
Interestingly, that attitude of respectful tolerance for religious diversity seems to have nourished a pro-religious mentality in general in my area.
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Fortunately for all of us, one of the neighbors decided that he would organize a band of volunteers to keep the cafe open and operating, the bills paid, and the family fed and secure until the father got back on his feet again.
And it worked.
The family was extraordinarily grateful, and we all were impressed by the kindness of the people who had helped them. But in this there was no expectation that the family would abandon their tight-knit group or that they would integrate more into the broader community. They had and have the same right to their faith and its practices as the rest of us do to ours.
We all know that Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, the different kinds of Christianity and the other religions are different. Our faiths and our practices are not the same. And we don't have to pretend that they are the same or equally good or honorable.
Our focus is not on the beliefs but on the believers.
 They
-- the people who live alongside us -- all deserve the respect
and protection and freedom to worship or not worship as they
choose.
Interestingly, that attitude of respectful tolerance for religious diversity seems to have nourished a pro-religious mentality in general in my area. People talk openly about their religious beliefs. Spiritual matters are of wide public interest. And religious celebrations are common.
But the heart of this religious attitude seems to me to be the respect we grant to believers. Dominican Father O'Rourke is a senior fellow at Santa Fe Institute in Berkeley.
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