Originally Posted by Meloman

I was born and raised Catholic. I went to Catholic school from 3rd grade all through High School.

But luckily I live in the U.S. Specifically San Francisco Bay Area, one of the most culturally diverse and tolerant places in the world.

I've had black, white, Asian, Hindu, Buddhist,Muslim etc.. friends growing up. It doesn't matter to me at all what color u are or what your religion is. All that I care about is if you are an honest person that treats people fairly PERIOD!

I know for a FACT that the Muslim religion does not preach violence and hatred, at least here in the U.S. I remember when I was around 11 or 12 my good friend up the street was Muslim. Completely normal kid with a super friendly family. He had some of the coolest toys so I loved going over to his place to play. Well one day in his room I came across a book. Some large oversized kids book with lots of pictures and stuff. Well it was his religion book that he was reading as part of his religion classes he attended. The lesson he was reading was about respecting all life regardless if it was human life or not. The picture story was about a group of people making a camp fire in the woods. Unfortunately they built it right next to an ant hill which sent the ants running. Well the story continued on to explain how the campers put out the fire and moved it over so that the ants could live in peace.

I of course being a kid and we know how kids can sometimes be mean...so I kinda laughed and made jokes that it's just ants, so why bother wasting time to move a camp fire just to save some ants.

Looking back on him, his family and that story always reminds me that Muslims are no different than any other religion. Every religion has good honest people. And every religion also has crazy fundamentalists too. The fundamentalists needs to be taught tolerance.

Sorry for the long as post. But I agree with everything u said Izzy!

I wish more of the world (including other parts of the U.S) would learn the tolerance that is openly practiced in the San Francisco Bay Area.

..Melo