Fostering Religious Tolerance in Early Childhood: The Influence of Parental Role

: Tolerance is needed in a diverse environment with different religions, ethnicities, customs, and cultures. So tolerance requires a culture that is done from an early age. Religion has fundamental values that teach its adherents to respect people of different faiths and beliefs so that it can be used as a guide for parents to provide assistance and develop tolerance at home. This research aims to investigate how the involvement and role of parents in cultivating the value of patience at home; do they provide support or hinder? The location of this research is Luwu Raya, a fertile area in Indonesia. This is qualitative research where the researchers chose 105 parents who had early childhood and lived together at home. Interviews were conducted via telephone, and several statements and questions were provided via Google form. The research analysis found that most of the early childhood children have parents who are still intact, live together and are given assistance that supports the cultivation of tolerance values at home. The religious-based tolerance values instilled are moderate (tawassuth), tolerant (tasamuh), balanced (tawazun), equality (musawah), peace (islah), and fair (i`tidal). In addition, the role of parents is mainly done by setting an example and, to a lesser extent, by applying rules and respect. This support is also related to the teachings of the Islamic religion, which emphasises the enormous responsibility of parents. The role of parents in cultivating the value of tolerance is a distinctive feature of a Muslim family, which strongly emphasises the solid relationship in parenting between parents and their children. This condition must be continued in school institutions and the environment, dramatically determining these efforts.


Keywords
This fact must be addressed by strengthening the tolerant character from an early age, which parents carry out at home. The results of a child's education cannot be separated from the efforts of parents and the influence of the home environment (Ikhwan & Jailani, 2014); (Bayat & Madyibi, 2022), school and society (Susilowati et al., 2018). Early childhood is the time frame from conception to eight years of age considered most important for its development (Likhar, Baghel, & Patil, 2022). Early experiences significantly impact a child's developmental trajectory and life destiny (Anderson et al., 2003). This crucial situation is what parents need to pay attention to so that their children grow up to be tolerant of all groups without discrimination of ethnicity, race or religion.
Tolerance education can take advantage of the noble values of religion, which pay great attention to diversity (Ikhwan, 2017). Children are taught how to embrace faith strongly, but on the other hand, they will not be easily influenced by radical teachings, blame others or spread hate speech. In addition to these definitions, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), strengthening the principles of tolerance is respecting, accepting and valuing the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human (Filasofa, Prayogo, & Khasanah, 2021). Parents must make determinations in various ways and interact with children, peers, educators and all components so that children from an early age can implement the tolerant character (Ridwan & Ikhwan, 2021).
The question is whether the role of parents in cultivating the character of tolerance supports or hinders it. The results of previous research found that spiritual development, including patience, is positively correlated with the psychological health of early childhood. The family is one of the contributing factors because children learn all actions and behaviours from their families, including walking, talking, selfconfidence and morality (Akrim & Junaidi, 2021), so they can control their emotions and make sound decisions (Chang, Knobf, Oh, & Funk, 2019). Some research results also show that early childhood is the right time to provide a foundation for religious and moral values regarding religious moderation (Azizah, 2022), and education is the most appropriate instrument for teaching the importance of tolerance and moderation (Amala, Reswari, & Iftitah, 2022). In addition, natural and cultural resources, including religion, can be identified and used in an integrated manner (Zama & Mashiya, 2022). The role of parents is directed at developing values, attitudes and behaviour consistently and continuously (Tabroni & Rahmania, 2022). It is a manifestation of the part of parents to pay attention to all aspects of their child's development, both physically and spiritually. After finding gaps in previous research, the researchers focused on the role of parents in tolerance education, which is predicted to support or hinder. One of the causes of parents experiencing fatigue in educating their children is perfectionism (Kawamoto, Furutani, & Alimardani, 2018), which ultimately causes obstacles in education. Knowledge, attitudes, and tolerant behaviour are essential to study because religious conflicts will last longer and be more challenging to overcome (Deitch, 2022), but can be reduced by increasing belief in God and religion (Elizabeth Barnes, Supriya, Zheng, Roberts, & Brownell, 2021). Thus, the cultivation of a tolerant character towards early childhood will be the future of religious peace in the future.
This research aims to identify and explore; (a) parental involvement in introducing the value of tolerance to early childhood, (b) the role of parents in forming tolerance in early childhood, and (c) the role of parents in shaping tolerant behaviour in early childhood. It is crucial and exciting because Indonesian people emphasise the importance of faith in God. 96% of the population believes that belief in God is necessary for cultivating good morality and values (Tamir, Connaughton, & Salazar, 2020), and emphasises the ideological principles applied to the administration of the state (Mu'ti & Burhani, 2019). Thus, this research is very strategic in reinforcing interreligious harmony in a country known as a megadiversity. Indonesia has a track record of maintaining balance despite the differences among its people. However, many practices of intolerance still occur and require the participation of all parties to resolve them.

II. METHOD
This research is part of a roadmap carried out by a research team independently, which aims to evaluate the role of parents in growing, maintaining and developing a tolerant character in early childhood. The data source in this study is the subject from which the data can be obtained (Arikunto, 2017); (Ikhwan, 2021). Informants were also identified using purposive and snowball sampling. The purpose of this sample is due to the location where it can be reached. The number set is 105 households, with the criteria selected from parents who have early childhood. They will be given a list of questions describing how to introduce tolerance, shape attitudes, and cultivate tolerant behaviour. The sample of this research is the Moeslem family in Palopo City.
This research was conducted in Palopo City, a small part of Indonesia, a developing country commonly called a megadiversity with diverse biodiversity, ethnicity, and religion (Von Rintelen, Arida, & Häuser, 2017). It has thousands of tribes and ethnic groups, hundreds of languages, various religions, and a level of pluralism in all its dimensions (Pajarianto, 2022). Informants from different regions use smartphones to fill out a list of questions or statements sent by researchers. Researchers collected data through semi-structured telephone and written interviews using Google Forms. The interviews were then grouped according to the theme, transcribed, and coded.
Data analysis was carried out using ongoing research since data collection began. The analytical approach used is the Discovering Cultural Themes model for understanding the typical symptoms of the previous analysis. This analysis collects themes, cultural focus, values, and symbols in each domain (Spradley, 2016). The research data were analysed in 3 stages, namely data reduction, data display and data presentation, regarding the data analysis theory of Miles and Huberman's model. Triangulation is carried out by adding the parts to detect the data or comparing the data obtained from To protect their identity, they are assigned a code and initials.

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Tolerance, in simple terms, is the attitude of appreciating or respecting differences between groups or individuals, especially in a country whose people are diverse in ethnicity, religion, race, and ethnicity. Instilling tolerant behaviour is not easy, especially if it is not done in a planned manner and from an early age. Many ways can be applied to cultivate an attitude of tolerance in all groups of people. The point is the awareness that difference is God's gift to the universe. By developing a culture of tolerance, conflicts and divisions between individuals and groups will be minimised to maintain the unity and integrity of the Indonesian nation. The choice is to cultivate the value of tolerance from an early age in the household.
The demographics of informants are from families who currently have early childhood and live together at home. From the distribution of statements and questions via the Google form, 105 families were filled out completely and correctly, then grouped and analysed based on predetermined themes. In Table 1, the educational level of the most dominant parents is undergraduate, as many as 62 people (56%), and the least are parents with high school qualifications, as many as 8 people (7%). In this data, there are also parents with doctoral qualifications of 9 people (8%), masters of 17 people (15%), and diplomas of 14 people (13%). Several studies have found that the level of education will impact the parents' ability to collaborate in an early childhood education environment by holding parenting education activities, holding children's growth days, and having a close relationship with childcare (   In Table 2, parents' work in early childhood also varies, where the highest are civil servants, with 71 people (65%), and the lowest are homemakers, with 7 people (6%). Meanwhile, 17 people (15%) were private employees, and 15 entrepreneurs (14%) were self-employed. Parents' work also needs attention because each job will have consequences for early childhood care. Income and education are significant risk factors for child development in low-income groups (Rai & Tiwari, 2018). They are related to the development of children's reasoning skills (Mikus, Tieben, & Schober, 2021). So in early childhood education, it is necessary to consider the financing structure to achieve equality (Zhou, Jiang, & Zhang, 2022). Parents' work will also determine the model and approach to educating children, and the outcome is the attitude and behaviour of early childhood.

Early Childhood Demographics
Informants were asked about gender, age, parental status, and the child's domicile. This section is intended to form a profile of young children who are requested directly by their parents. By understanding how much influence the home environment has on a child's life, both parents must prepare the child, protect him from humiliation, and direct him so that the spirit of religion and glory grows in his soul. Parents (father and mother) are responsible for the child's education. Table 1 describes the profiles compiled from 106 children obtained from both parents. In Table 3, 55 (52%) of the early childhood children were male, and 50 people (48%) were female. Parents were asked to provide age information for their children, and as many as 43 (41%) were four years old, 23 (22%) were five years old, and 39 (37%) were six years old. Meanwhile, 98 (93%) of the parent's marital status was complete, consisting of husband and wife, while 7 people (7%) were widows or widowers, either divorced or one of their spouses died. Then as many as 105 (100%) of these early childhood children live with both parents. This data illustrates that most of the children in this study still have complete parents and live with both parents. Psychologically it will significantly impact the growth and development of the soul in early childhood.

Cultivating Tolerance in Early Childhood
Indonesia is trying to eradicate radicalism, excessive religious fanaticism and intolerance everywhere (Tyas & Naibaho, 2020). So the efforts of parents in educating children's character are needed using conditioning, followed by rules. At the same time, other ways, such as giving advice, and less done by parents. It is achievable because more parents imitate what their parents have done so far (Syuraini, Wahid, Azizah, & Pamungkas, 2018), which will lead to cultivating virtue values in early childhood (Jaedun & Manaf, 2020). The descriptive results are shown in Table 4. Most parents do it often or very often (score 4-5) in cultivating the value of tolerance, and a small number of parents have never done it (score 1-2). Thus, parents have support for efforts to cultivate the value of tolerance at home. Statement number 6 has the highest score in developing the deal of patience. Parents permit their children to share food or toys with their friends. It embodies the importance of justice/I'tidal, which upholds a sense of justice. It is supported by the results of previous research, which found that when recess arrived at school, one of the early childhood children brought his food and offered it to his friends (Sumadi, Yetti, Yufiarti, & Wuryani, 2019). Some parents stated emphatically that they liked it when their children adapted to sharing food or toys with their friends (MA, SM, SW, GF; interview by phone, 29 September 2022).
What these parents did, reflected their support for some of the attitudes needed in cultivating tolerance. Parents provide support and condition so that their children are fair, prioritise peace, and foster tolerance with affection among children in their association. Of course, what parents do is adjusted to the child's growth and development level so that parents' instructions and guidance can touch their knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.

Dominant Aspects of Cultivating Tolerance
Cultivating the value of tolerance for early childhood requires different instruments and treatment from other age groups. The early childhood age group requires modelling that can be seen and implemented (Widodo et al., 2020), because models that can set an example can foster a caring attitude (Marshall,Caldwell,& Foster,199   In  (Meron, 2021), until they are at the marriage level. Parents are fully responsible for fulfilling physical needs and cultivating good values from their culture and religion. This fact cannot be generalised because there are still many cases related to low tolerance, which results from a long process of education in the household.
Fulfilment of physical and mental aspects in the household is expected to provide a conducive climate for developing tolerance values in children. One of the causes of intolerance involving young people is a matter of immature mental readiness, so young people are affected by religious discourse conveyed by new people through indoctrination. In this context, the role of parents is needed to carry out mentalspiritual maturation from an early age so that children become critical of new knowledge and adapt to the times without becoming intolerant. Moderation and tolerance are cultivated in early childhood so they are not exposed to radical ideas. It is because children who are accustomed to behaving in a respectful and peace-loving manner will have a positive impact on their children later in adulthood (Amala et al., 2022). That will lead to the harmonisation process can be carried out in all spaces including in educational institutions and households containing early childhood (Fajriyah & Riswandi, 2022).
This study's results provide essential information to revitalise the role of parents in early childhood in Luwu Region. The pattern of education which has been imbued so far needs to be revised to be more participatory so that early childhood can increase their critical thinking to receive and filter information from outside. With this support, the culture of tolerance based on religious values can work and give hope for a tolerant and peaceful world order.

IV. CONCLUSION
Analysis of research data found that the role of parents in cultivating tolerance was quite supportive by enabling tolerance values contained in attitudes of moderation (tawassuth), tolerance (tasamuh), balance (tawazun), equality (musawah), peace (islah), and fairness (i`tidal). The most dominant role is exemplary, followed by respect and setting rules for early childhood in their homes. This condition is a distinct characteristic of a Muslim family, which places a strong emphasis on the solid relationship in upbringing between parents and their children. They realise that the household is where parents give freedom and guidance to children. Parents give a lot of input and direction on what children do. Parents are objective and concerned and have control over their children's behaviour. In many ways, parents often dialogue and consult with children about various decisions. Children who are accustomed to democratic parenting will have a beneficial effect. Among them, children will feel happy, have self-control and self-confidence, be able to cope with stress, have the desire to excel and communicate with friends and adults.
In parenting, parents should be wise and prudent, not extreme towards any existing parenting style, in the sense of being able to provide care according to what the child is doing and what the parents expect. Children raised and cared for in a democratic parenting style will grow and develop well. All the potential that children have can be designed optimally. The positive impact that will arise is the realisation of a good social order, mutual respect, mutual affection, mutual love, and a society that is open, positive-minded, honest and has good tolerance.
Furthermore, as Explained in the result discussion, Moderation and tolerance are cultivated in early childhood so they are not exposed to radical ideas. It is because children who are accustomed to behaving in a respectful and peace-loving manner will positively impact their children later in adulthood. That will lead to the harmonisation process can be carried out in all spaces, including in educational institutions and households containing early childhood.

V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Universitas Muhammadiyah Palopo for providing moral support so that this research can be completed and published.