Peacefulpete
You poor thing. Trying hard to be a gracious and yet aching to point out the hypocrisy.
Your Pakistani friend sounds like a man who is moderate in his actions but by no means moderate in belief. Yet, it chills the spine to contemplate what a mob of people with his worldview would do to a gay person in a dark alley. He calls himeself a moderate Muslim only to project himself as a thinking, progressive Muslim, a migrant much preferred by Western democratic countries. Yet his ideas betray his true colours.
Having said that however, one should not dismiss the existence of genuine progressive Muslims as if they were a myth. They are few by comparison, but they exist. Try reading works by Irshad Manji, Farish A. Noor or Scott Siraj Al-Haqq Kugle. It would be tragic if the world should become complacent towards this minority simply because of imposters. These reformers are not those who suck up to Western authorities to get themselves a green card. They are genuinely concerned about the stagnation of Muslim thought and culture.
While a Muslim fundamentalist may go to great extremes to be heard by the world, I find it reprehensible to give pats on the back of Christian fundamentalists to the effect of saying "These kids of ours aren't nearly as bad as the ones next door. You're alright sonny".
Xian fundies target abortion clinics and funerals of dead soldiers. But they do more.
Who killed Matthew Shepard?
For whose favour is Bush clamoring by appealing TWICE for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage?
The delusional representative of which religion made a passing threat of assassination to a South American president?
Why do so-called secular-thinking politicians oppose stem-cell research?
Which group is trying to silence lessons on science and evolution by replacing it with Intelligent Design?
None of these wrongs can compare with strapping yourself with dynamite and killing Israeli civilians. But don't trivialise the mistakes in your own backyard simply because there is something worse in someone else's.
Christianity is no more a religion of peace than Islam. It depends on who's the spokesperson and what is his/her agenda.
INQ