Muslim student
A few years ago, I was in charge of a course at one of the Midlands' larger medical schools. One of my students was clearly a devout Muslim - skullcap, beard, the lot.

He was a lovely guy, and would stay behind after class to ask questions. These would turn into big conversations - frequently about religion. Clearly, he and I disagreed about a lot. But we'd happily spend half an hour or more just going for it. Each of us knew that we could say anything, because - realistically - he wasn't going to convert me, and I wasn't going to undermine his faith.

It was great. We both enjoyed ourselves immensely.

His friend would also stay behind. Now, I don't think that he was nearly so sure of his faith. He dressed in a more Western fashion, didn't seem to know his way around the Koran as well as the other guy, and so on. And he'd listen in to the arguments looking more and more uncomfortable.

There's no punchline to this. Merely a diverting observation about how, at times, it's those who wear their religion on their sleeve who turn out to be those with whom you can have a more intellectually satisfying conversation about religion, and how it's those who're less certain who, at times, are more antsy about having their uncetainties tested.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 24 Mar 2009, 14:26, Reply)