I'm amazed at how vicious this forum can be. Here we have a Muslim woman condemning terrorism and wanting to be friends, and all most of you can do is criticise her, or her religion.

You might not like Islam, but it is not going away. And none of us like the atavistic elements in Islam.

But you not going to convert many Muslims to atheism, so how are you going to deal with the violent elements in Islam? (Assuming atheists are immune from violence, which is a bad assumption).

Yell at its moderate adherents who support a version of the religion that is compatible with modern secular society? Or engage them in a respectful conversation?

Seems like most of you want to do the first. Which tells me you have the same problem that many of the people you criticise do - you don't want to understand, you want to obliterate.

How about taking the hand that is put out in friendship?

GY: How about taking the hand that is put out in friendship?

I have yet to see her reply to any posts.

In fact many who post articles never reply to anything that is posted about their article. My bet is that most of these people don't even know that their article has been posted to OLO or the Forum fro review.

I for one am quite willing to engage with someone of the Islamic Religion providing they answer a few very simple questions truthfully. They won't. They will go off in some wild unrelated tangent. One of my favourites is Iftikhar in England.

Interesting you should say that runner. Of course predictably, your view will be scoffed at here by the high priests of liberalism, exhibiting bias and illiberal views outside their confining ideology of laissez-faire humanism.
Them and us runner, them and us! I scoff!

Welcome aboard GY, this is a bit of a rough ocean here at the moment. But like a stiff NE'r , should quieten by the morning!

Graham,

I too find the viciousness here disconcerting. However, I don’t think it’s being driven by atheism (let alone a desire to convert anyone to atheism) more just a general hatred and intolerance. After all, I count two Christians here getting in on the action, and one of the atheists wishes he was a Christian.

<<Here we have a Muslim woman condemning terrorism and wanting to be friends, and all most of you can do is criticise her, or her religion.>>

Yeah, they can’t win. We want Muslims to condemn terrorism, then when they do, they're apparently lying. Either that or we just outright ignore them: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muslim-anti-isis-march-not-covered-by-mainstream-media-outlets-say-organisers-a6765976.html

This woman asks us to try and understand Islam before we condemn it but like all religions it is based on faith. Religion by its own definition is not logical or reasonable. Either you have faith or you do not and nothing can change that reality. It is a gift from God and you cannot come to a religious position by understanding or thinking or reason.

It is pointless to appeal to non-Muslims to be reasonable about Islam. The same holds true for all religions. Religious people cannot have it both ways. They reject reason and logic but hope to find understanding by appealing to others to be reasonable.

Either we all agree to accept reason and logic as the basis for society or we reject it totally. There cannot be half measures. How can we be expected to tolerate behaviour which is unreasonable without threatening the very fundamental core of our humanity? We should never tolerate religion since it is inhuman to reject reason and anyone who suggests we do should be treated with great suspicion. Most religious people act with reason most of the time but when it suits them they reject reason. This is simply not good enough.

Insofar as your reject reason you reject society. You become a drag on society and hold back the rest of humanity. While everyone else is looking for logical solutions to real problems you are thumbing your Koran or fingering your beads and that places a far bigger burden on society than the fear of terrorism.