because we always encounter it in a threatening context. Certainly, with churches buring on Gaza and a nun shot dead in Somalia, the Pope will know better than to suggest that Islam is anything other than peaceful. Because of the great interest presently shown in Islam, for whatever reason, as an agnostic I decided to find out about Islam, its history and practices at some depth by using the means immediately available to me: a translation of the Qu'ran and books by modern and ancient Muslim authors, all in English translation. I very quickly realised that Islam , like other god-centred faiths, puts forward some things I could accept and other things that I could not accept, with the latter group leading by a short head. However, all that changed with the behaviourof members of what is referred to as the 'Muslim community'in this country advocating murder because of the publication of some rather poorly drawn cartoons depicting the a prophet of Islam. I decided there and then that I could not support the murder of anyone for any reason or any institution advocating it. One of the problems with writers like Armstrong and many of the contributors to this post is that they appear to judge everyone who doesn't accept the arguments put forward by Islam as paranoid. Some of us have investigated and, after a great deal of consideration and weighing up the pro's and con's, have rejected the arguments put forth, as they have rejected the arguments