VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|Dinah|DATE|1374009368|CONTENT|At its worst, institutional religion strengthens the tribal instincts of its followers, and encourages hatred and bigotry.  Perhaps the Good Uncle would care to explain why our beloved leaders are so keen on inflicting more and more religiously-segregated schools on the population, when this policy has proved such a disaster in Northern Ireland.  Unfortunately, most of us are force-fed almost from the cradle the notion that religion is a Good Thing, and many never manage to disabuse themselves of it, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

When I was growing up in the fifties and sixties, I couldn’t have told you what a Muslim/Moslem or Islam was, because I had never heard of either term.  (In those days, I believe Westerners described followers of Islam as ‘Mohammedans’ a term now deemed politically incorrect, as Muslims claim not to actually worship Mohammed, the founder of their faith.)  Anyway, back then people from overseas who came to settle in this country were described by their ethnic origin, never by their religion.  I get the impression that following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the communist bloc, this all changed.  Political Islam gradually filled the power vacuum left by the former Soviet Union, and having gained all this power, it has become extremely threatening, misogynistic, intolerant and bent on converting the world to its cause, just as Christianity used to.

I have no doubt this is an extremely over-simplified view of events, but I occasionally I feel a wave of nostalgia for the old days.  The Communists may have been as humourless and fanatical as the Islamists, but at least they didn’t stick their bottoms up in the air five times a day or sport enormous birds&#039; nest beards, big enough to store a spare packet of sandwiches.
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