[maccas81]

on the point about music in muslim life, music actually enjoys a central role in most liberal muslim societies...in fact, some of the finest ethnic music of the middle east is produced by muslims, such as musrat fateh ali khan, the famous pakistani sitar player.... however, extremist islamists - such as the taliban - believe that all music, and indeed all imagery created buy human beings (basically all the art in the world) - should be banned. islam may well be the youngest religion, but muslims need to be less touchy when they hear their religion criticised.....it seems that they can say anything they want about christians.....but when a christian criticies islam, many of them are on the attack straight away...maybe if there was less hypocrisy and self-righteousness among such people, it would go a long way towards increasing understanding and tolerance...tolerance is a 2 way street after all...if christians should respect islam, or other religions then equally islam should respect christianity and other religions also....