ABSTRACT
The Human Development Report (HDR) 2004, henceforth referred to as HDR 2004, proposed exactly the reverse: the multiplicity of cultures in the world enhances our human experience, and cultures also enrich each other. The HDR viewpoint is based on a central tenet: that humanity advances not only by the progressive implementation of the whole range of human rights, but also by the expansion of its choices and opportunities. The expansion of cultural choice and freedom is part and parcel of human development. All religions and religious ideologies, from the clearly coercive ones to thoroughly modernized and liberal versions, rest on the same basis: on belief, and ultimately on belief in divine revelation. Hindu fundamentalism provides us with another notable example of the politicization of religion and its consequences. The awareness, early in the twenty-first century, of Islamic extremism is so acute because extremist Islamic fundamentalists have been more willing to translate their beliefs into deeds.
