INTOLERANCE of one human for another around the globe has taken on a brutality of its own.
The most horrifying example of this human hate is being played out in the United Kingdom, where xenophobic far-right extremists are on a slash-and-burn hunt for immigrants and Muslims. Xenophobes don't need a reason. All they need is a pretext for their hatred which has long been cultured in their tainted heart.
A 17-year-old, who allegedly killed three girls and injured several others at a children's dance event in Southport on July 29, provided a convenient pretext. It turned out that the teenager was neither an immigrant nor a Muslim. He was born in Britain to Rwandan parents. Be that as it may, what he allegedly did was dastardly. Even after the alleged attacker's identity was made known, the racist rampage raced on. By then, if not earlier, the hatred for the other had taken on the shape of a xenophobic pogrom.
But intolerance isn't just a British disease. It's a malady of many men and women around the world.
Some Malaysian hearts are similarly contaminated. A defect of heart such as this needs more than penal punishments. It can't be denied that arrests and prosecutions do help.
But eradication of hate, a disease of the heart that it is, needs education. And a royal reminder even. One such was provided by Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah in his royal address at the Regional Southeast Asia Human Dignity Conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
Here is the gist of his message: everybody, regardless of faith and background, deserves to feel safe, respected, and included, not only in their home country, but wherever they travel in the world. We could not have said it better. But there is a problem. There aren't many places in the world where everyone feels safe, respected and included.
Hence Sultan Nazrin's call to the world to put an end to intolerance. The mere fact that a regional conference on human dignity is being held in this day and age is an acknowledgement of a growing disorder.
Humans are the best of God's creations. But some do not act in accordance with the divine blessings. Thankfully, these are a mindless minority, though, alarmingly, a growing one.
The "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory, which claims that people of colour, especially Muslims, are being brought into the West to "replace" Whites, is of no help. It is now a textbook of the far-right in Europe and America.
Like the false rumour of July 29 that has caused the horrible riots in the UK, the lie that gave birth to the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory is continuing to wreak havoc in the West. The task to correct the course now falls on the majority who see this world as a home for all faiths and backgrounds.
Armed with the blessed moral compass, they must seek to educate the wayward minority. They must be made to understand that everyone has a right to be here on the only Earth we have.