You'll forgive me but you are painting with a broad brush there with a generalization that to me has a faint whiff of something very ugly.
I was actually refering to two people I know, whom both are immigrants, one from Yemen and the other from Bangladesh. Both came to the U.S. as adults and both are observant Muslims, prayer, no pork, the whole shebang. One I work with and he tries to live a peaceful and tolerant life. He often speaks out against religious extremism amongst Muslims and he uses the Quran as the basis of his position, telling me "Brother (everybody is Abdullah's brother
) in my holy book it says if Allah wished it so he would have made all the world one religion from the start, but he did not. So how arrogant is it for some to think the whole world should be Muslim?"
Even though I am an atheist and he knows this he's always treated me with kindness and respect. This impresses me, as does my very good friend Ed's born again lifestyle, because to my eyes he is also living up to the best standards of his religion, especially where it concerns compassion and caring for his fellow man. Though I cannot be a believer for many reasons, not the least of which is lack of evidence, if the world had more followers of in all the Abrahamic faiths that followed the rules of brotherhood and compassion set down in their holy texts we'd be in a better world in many ways, even if I think that they believe in something that is not so.
