preposterous

Well it happened - on last nights' news - Sudanese calling for the death penalty for the teacher who innocently allowed her pupils to call a teddy bear Mohammed. Are these people insane? Muslim peers from Great Britain are heading out there to try and secure her release. Let's just hope they succeed. I was raised to accept everybody as an individual regardless of sex, colour, creed, race. Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you I am extremely tolerant, but even I am getting a little weary of the way Muslims behave throughout the world. Eighty percent of the problems in the world seems to be caused by Muslims. If they are not fighting each other, they are terrorising someone else. This is not Islam! Certainly not judging by the Koran that I read.
And it is not the majority doing this, it is a minority. The vast majority of Muslims are ordinary, decent, hard working people, no different to anyone else in the world. It is a minority of extremists and they are spoiling things for all Muslims. Is it any wonder extremist parties are getting a foot hold in western countries, when faced with what we see around us? Ordinary westerners see the extremists from the Muslim world doing things like crashing planes into the twin towers in America, bombing the underground in London and now the calls for the teacher in the Sudan to be executed for an innocent mistake and they just see Islam as a threat! Something dangerous, something to fear. When really Islam is a beautiful, peaceful religion.

The affect this is having in the country worries me. We've already seen in recent years problems caused for British Muslims by the acts of extremists in other countries. This isn't fair. But how can the Muslim world expect the western world to respect Islam if all the western world sees are the horrors done in the name of Islam. We don't see the good. We only see the bad. And the bad is pretty horrific to westerners. Westerners don't see a peaceful, loving, tolerant religion. They see thousands of innocent people being killed in the twin towers, they see suicide bombers, they see different groups of Muslims in places like Iraq killing each other. They see Muslims in the UK not joining in with the rest of society. It's time we saw the true Islam.
I don't want the children in my family growing up in a world like this! I want them to grow up in a world where everyone is accepted for who they are as an individual. Where our differences are rejoiced in - not rejected. Where all peoples are tolerant of each others' beliefs and respect them. Where no-one goes around killing other human beings in the name of God. You cannot kill in the name of God - now that IS blasphemous! Thou shalt not kill is still a commandment to the best of my knowledge. It does not say - thou shalt not kill unless you are killing in the name of God! Thou shalt not kill - MEANS - thou shalt not kill! And anyone who kills, for whatever reason is breaking that commandment. There is no glory in it. Only shame. God created every single person on the planet. He loves us all unconditionally. To kill another human being for ANY reason is an offense to God, you are killing a part of God himself.

God gave us a wonderful planet to live on, which we are rapidly destroying. It is full of spectacular sights, wonderful creatures and billions of humans who are all unique! We should be rejoicing in that and not making a mockery of God by destrying it. Isn't it about time we all took a deep breath and made a choice to make this world a better place for our children and our children's children? We are only caretakers of this planet. For most of us - three score and ten is our average time here. Can we not decide here and now, that from this day forward we will all work towards a better world? Small changes are all it needs from each of us. A smile to a stanger. Extending the hand of friendship to a neighbour. Making an effort to be kinder to one another. To bite one's lip when we want to say so much. To count to ten when we get angry. Call round and see the old man or woman living on your street and check they are ok. Make a point of befriending someone of a different religion, so you can learn to understand them better and be more tolerant of their beliefs and more respectful of them so you don't inadvertantly offend them. It doesn't take much to do. In fact you were created to be this way naturally. Go on, do it today - you know you want to. And who knows - you may be surprised at what riches it may bring into your life!