Sadly, within the history of Christianity, you may find that more Christians have been persecuted by other Christians (wearing slightly different banners, colours and different ideas on the one true faith), than by any other religion. Christians themselves have persecuted other religions too. I am not saying that in some countries many Christians are not persecuted. They are. But the words "kettle", "pot" and "black" do come to mind. What goes around comes around all too often, and not just in religion, which makes for a really sad future for humankind.

Today I attended an early St Patrick's Day celebration. It was purposely organised to be eceumenical. A Priest gave the blessing but was not speaking to any one religion in the room. He was speaking to everyone and praying with everyone. He made mention of how today was a mixture of faiths and what can be achieved when faiths work together. It was a great speech and one that was warming to hear.

I hear that and then come home to read this thread. It is my hope that the Father today was closer to being right about what we can all achieve by embracing each other more than what will happen if we do not bury of past differences. These were great words and it is with great hope I would want to believe them

I suspect Islamophobia will raise its head a lot in this thread potentially. In the end what we are fearing is each other. Our differences, when put aside, can allow that we see we have far more in common with each other than we don't. My vote would go to building on that hope rather than potentially breeding hatred of differences.

Just a few thoughts

mp