Dear CarolC,

Though we've never met, I've come to regard you as a friend over the years through the agreement we often have in our posts, especially on matters environmental, and through our common contact Skipjack who is a good personal friend of mine.

Don't get riled up too much by some of the posts here. As it happens, I'm a Buddhist married to a Catholic for 25 years and have very good Hindu, Jewish and Muslim friends, all decent and moderate people to the core. I have also lived in some of the most multicultural parts of London for a long time, like Brixton, and have seen the causes of and, very occasionally solutions to, a lot of the racial and "religious" tensions over the years.

I suppose Guest, M.y. could be living in the proximity of a large Muslim community and it is certainly true that the events of the past couple of years (and also the tension of seemingly inevitable forthcoming events) have caused some polarization in these normally peaceable communities such that an element of fanaticism supported by some of the more extreme Mullahs has come more to the fore. Like any form of extremism, the root causes of it need to be analyzed and it also needs to be recognized that only a small percentage of the community affected ever get involved in this extremism.

Certainly, an over-literal reading of parts of the Koran (or the Bible for that matter) can give some people justification for extreme views but this is not the usual or normal case. If one looks at the main theological "pillars" of both Christianity and Islam, there is more is common than that which separates.

Coming back to the main theme of this thread, what is happening seems to me to be yet another deplorable kneejerk by some of the more reactionary elements of the US administration.

At this time of year....

Peace and compassion to all beings

mooman