Rice University has announced a gift of $28.5 million from Houston philanthropists Milton and Laurie Boniuk to establish an institute that promotes religious tolerance.

The Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance will conduct research, public outreach, and educational programming designed to foster multidisciplinary efforts that lead to new ways to understand and achieve religious tolerance. The institute's initial research will include efforts to assess and catalogue hate speech and other manifestations of religious intolerance through analyses of Web sites and newswire databases and study how search-engine algorithms and other Internet infrastructure might foster or deter both religious pluralism and intolerance. Scholars also will study policies and programs that affect religious tolerance among individuals and within societies and develop policy recommendations consistent with the promotion of tolerance.

In collaboration with the Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research's Houston Area Survey, the Boniuk institute aims to establish the most comprehensive survey yet to assess current and evolving attitudes toward religious coexistence within and among faith communities. Researchers also will attempt to understand the neurological, psychological, and sociological causes of religious intolerance and violence.

The institute will expand on the work of the Boniuk Center, which was created at Rice in 2004 with a $5 million gift and has worked to nurture tolerance among people of all faiths, as well as no faith, and to study the conditions in which tolerance and intolerance flourish.

"With so much injustice, ignorance, fear and sorrow in the world around us, organizations like the Boniuk Institute can be a beacon of hope to so many," said Dr. Amir Malik, president of the local Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. "Through its enriched and diversified programs, it can help develop and inculcate better understanding and mutual respect — the very principles needed to start conversations among different faith groups — as well as bridge gaps across cultural divides."