Mosque helps out local church

As a break from the bathroom saga here is a great story of the way Christians and Muslims should get on:

http://www.christianaid.org.uk/getinvolved/supporter-stories/mosque_church.aspx

This is more in line with my experience of Muslims who I have found to be charitable, peace loving people. Following on from this story:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7351537/Muslim-cleric-issues-fatwa-against-Islamist-terrorists.html

I hope it will stop at least some people as seeing all Muslims as evil.

Muslim Anti-Christian Violence

Interesting article here about the rise of anti-christian violence in Muslim countries:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jan/14/anti-christian-violence-muslim-world

I have noticed for a while that a lot of the intervention by the the western powers in Muslim countries seems to work against the local Christian population: e.g. the Christian population in Iraq is now under attack and the biggest losers in Palestine are the Arab Christians who seem to have been driven out as the Israeli / Palestinian conflict has become a 'holy' war between Jews and Muslims.

A lot of this comes about as the western powers are seen, by the Muslims, as Christian nations; something from which their populations are increasingly identifying with less and less.

Iran Police 'Target Mannequins'

One of my on-going concerns is the way we muddle Christianity with our culture and then try to impose cultural standards as part of our religion. I know that it is a problem for Christians in the UK and USA but hadn't thought about it being a wider issue until I reads this article about the Irainian police clamping down on what they saw as un-Islamic clothing:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8270034.stm

Is it really un-Islamic or is it just their traditional culture that they are defending?