Excerpt:
DW: British Prime Minister Theresa May says there is "too much tolerance for extremism" in the United Kingdom. What does she mean by that?
Dwayne Ryan Menezes: For various reasons, tolerance of different religions, which is good, has come to mean a passive acceptance and even gradual accommodation of the ideological extremisms that have emerged in their name, which does not have to be the case. The irony, however, is that the tolerance of religious extremism is counterproductive - not only to any endeavor to promote interfaith trust or appreciation of diversity in society, but also to the religious communities themselves where different factions wrestle for control over how the religion ought to be interpreted.
Turning a blind eye to the distribution of anti-Western leaflets, the endorsement of homophobia and the subjugation of women, or the preaching of sermons that advocate violence against unbelievers in any religious institution, for instance, will obviously have serious implications, not least because it will gradually empower those whose perspectives and objectives may not reflect the highest ideals one might see a particular religion to represent.