I also know one of his chums from his home town. Were he inclined to fast during this Ramadan he might not be able to take the medicines prescribed by the clap clinic following an encounter with a large-breasted Polish woman a couple of weeks ago, but he is not fasting. His visa is about to expire so he's making the most of his last few weeks in London. When asked how the lifestyle he has in London can be justified according to his religion he said, and I quote: "I don't hurt anyone, I just enjoy myself". I doubt there can be a better analysis of the absurdity of religious rules about what we consume and how we exercise our other bodily needs, they are utterly pointless compared to conducting ourselves in a way that does not harm other people. A rapist is a rapist regardless of whether he likes a bacon butty.

At the written level—Bible vs, Koran—both books are horrendous. Both detail God-driven genocide. Both show intolerance for infidels, heretics, unbelievers, and others. Both command barbaric punishment and demand that everything be brought under the sovereign control of the deity. But believers are more flexible than the books they read. And that fact has to be recognized. That is what anti-Islamic Right-wingers fail to do.