[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by Bonnyboy

We are supposedly a christian country. It doesn’t mean we all follow the teachings of the bible word for word, why should the muslims follow Islam word for word.

I somehow missed this bit before but it's a brilliant comparison Bonnyboy and I thank you for it as it's worth bringing up again.

You say that we are a Christian country (although even that is disputed by some who would say that we are a secular country with many (but not all) Christian moral values.) Then you say that we do not all follow the teachings of the Bible word for word. That is absolutely true. Not everyone in this country by a long way follows the teachings of the Bible word for word, but that is because not everyone in this country is a committed Christian - not even everyone who goes to Church on Sundays. To some people church is more of a social club or a tradition or something they do because they always have done, and yet they are classed amongst the numbered Christians of the country who are actually in a minority - the majority don't attend church except for christenings weddings and funerals, and nowadays not even for those. There are numerous people in this country who describe themselves as C of E but never set foot inside a church. Then you get the people who are sincere (whatever denomination) and for whom their faith is the major part of their lives, not just on a Sunday morning but 24/7 365 days a year. People who are not afraid to stand up and be counted and say they believe in Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer, and who get called 'Bible bashers' by the rest.

That was what I was trying to say about Islam. There are people who describe themselves as Muslim because they were born into Muslim families. There are others who convert to Islam who were perhaps born to Christian parents or to atheist parents or to parents who didn't give a two penny fig one way or t'other. And in between these two there are numerous others - some of whom attend the mosque because that is what you do, and some of whom say they prayers because they want to and because they feel something and it means something to them. There are Muslims who swan off on foreign holidays and think nothing of it. There are others who scrimp and scrape for the one trip of a lifetime to Mecca to the holy city on pilgrimage.

The latter are the ones who care about how their crisps are made. The former will probably carry on eating them even though they know how they are made.

Just because the 'nominal Christians' don't follow the teachings of the Bible does that mean I shouldn't? I choose to do so, and accept that they choose not to. I also appreciate the information which allows me to make my own informed choices so that I am not forced to live by the standards of those who choose not to follow. I don't force my standards on non-believers and I don't expect them to force their standards on me.

I did look at that muslim dating site link - I meant I hadn't checked it out as a member , for two reasons - 1) I am a married woman and 2) I'm not a muslim. However, just by looking at it you can see how it is very much different to a secular dating agency or to small ads in the LET. Unless I actually joined I don't see how I could have an opinion on how the system works and if it is acceptable to Muslim standards, but I can't imagine that it wouldn't be.

Why are my religious views any different to you than a Muslim's? We both have specific standards we wish to live by which are not the same as yours. We neither of us are wishing to force ours onto you, just to ask that we have the information available so that we can continue to live ours. I really can't see why people are getting so hot under the collar about this.

To me it is simply doing people the courtesy of informing them of something which matters to them and which it wouldn't kill Walkers to do. Unless of course they chose to hide the information because they feared they would lose sales to all those Muslim kids who enjoy their crisps. In which case I think they have rather shot themselves in the foot because if I were a Muslim I would now be wary of all their products and not just the ones which they acknowledge may contain traces of alcohol.