Freedom of Religion and Living Together

In May 2019, the Desmond Tutu Centre, in collaboration with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, hosted a public lecture delivered by Sohail Wahedi, PhD candidate at Erasmus Graduate School of Law in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Wahedi’s objective of the lecture was to create awareness and raise consciousness about the rise of Islamophobia across Western countries. Dr Lee Scharnick-Udermans, Senior Researcher at the Desmond Tutu Centre, responded with a South African perspective, saying that South Africa is not exempt from actions that show religious intolerance but, despite some incidents she used as examples, Scharnick-Udermans noted that there are still traces of religious tolerance in South Africa.