To Mick - Christians believe in miracles. OK. Pagans quite often believe in magic. Same effect very often. What gets me is when someone's hairline escape is hailed as a miracle, but the hairline chance that sent someone over the cliff edge isn't. As to fundamentalist pagans, new recruits in any faith are often a pain... The emphasis in certain Islamic communities on covering females up suggests to me that the males in those parts have a certain lack of control - or the mullahs or whatever think they have. I don't have much time for priests of any sort, but if females are excluded from the chance of becoming priests or taking a normal part in society, I've got no time for that sort of religion. And find it hard to understand why any woman would willingly adopt it or stay in it. Yes, in Saudi it's a bit hard for a female to escape from it, and even in the UK there are still problems for girls from Islamic communities who want to go out with native boys. (Native applies to people of any type who are born of families that are not of recently immigrant origins. I am a native in the UK - a Ghanaian villager is a native in Ghana.) Men and women are different (thank the gods!) but some men are different from other men anyway. A skinny 7 stone lad isn't going to win the World Heavyweight Boxing championship. And Cassius Clay wouldn't have done very well as a National Hunt jockey. But there should be equality of opportunity for people to achieve something in life. And forcing people to wear veils and stay at home isn't giving those people a chance. And apart from all this, fundamentalism is an abdication of the prime power of mankind - the power of thought. It is a giving over to long-dead and often unknown persons the right to control your beliefs without having to think these things out for yourself.