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Argues that toleration is the first principle of all human rights. Rise of tolerance in Europe; Information on cruelty in the Middle East; Negative view of toleration in Arab-Muslim practice.

Addresses questions regarding Islam's migration toward tolerance in the face of the West's parallel move toward pluralism. Possible alternatives; Articles by Kanan Makiya; Tahar Ben Jalloun; Fourazi Charfi and Tariq Banuri.

Discusses how circumstances of war and irrational violence can actively engender acts of extreme cruelty and compassion among human beings. Examination of tolerance's ascendancy in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries; Contemporary parallels in Lebanon, Somalia and former Yugoslavia; Effect of Gulf War upon evolution of tolerance; Decline of ideologies obliterating distinctions between revolution and democracy.

The article discusses issues related to the emergence of the process of substituting Islamic references for secular-nationalist ones in Arab countries. Since the Gulf War, a new kind of writing in some Arabic newspapers has appeared, resulting to the exploration of the concept of toleration with reference to the question of whether it contains a usable past that can anchor it in the Arab-Muslim tradition. While the concept of toleration may not have pressing necessity at earlier phases of Arab socio-political development, an increasing number of Arabs are finding it in the current world.