These are christians, they don't like you

What is that? I ask again, what the heck was that? I was just sitting in my favorite cafeteria called Le Colbert, it's on Rue Belgique, when a man with a little boy passed by. "They are christians, they don't like you" - that's what the man said to the little boy when they were just passing me. Obviously they must have been muslims. The father, uncle, friend or whoever the man was to the boy must have been a muslim extremist...or just a moron. I really don't know what to say about him, other than that he's a moron.

He's the type of guy who is causing the problems in the world, he's the type of guy causing the intolerance. Why shouldn't christians like muslims? Why? Of course, there are christian fundamentalists as well, they might agree with him, but by the end of the day, it doesn't matter what religion you are in, as long as you can be tolerant towards other religions as well. He obviously was not.

I'm myself an atheist, an agnostic the most, but I have nothing against either christians or muslims...or buddhists for the matter. Of course, if they are true believers, I might argue with them the whole night long, but that's okay. It doesn't mean that I don't like them, maybe I don't agree nor understand them, but that's a totally different thing. Even during this trip I met two muslims, one from Morocco and the other from Senegal, both great guys. And yes, I argued with one of them for hours. But even though it really was a "discussion" without an end, and neither of us agreed with the other one, we still got along well. And why shouldn't we, we are both human beings, just with completely different look at life.

My message to all true believers, whether christians, muslims, atheists or anything else - believe in what you want to believe in, or feel the need to believe in, but be tolerant towards other's beliefs as well. And no, you don't have to agree with them, you don't even have to understand them always, but you do need to understand and accept that this is who they are, this is what they believe in, this is what makes them who they are. This is what works for THEM.

PS: Of course, I do need to add one thing - if we talk about violence, bombing, terrorism, or just bothering random people on the streets in order to get them to believe in what you believe in (seen mormons?) - then that's something I can't understand, accept or tolerate. This is just not...well, ethical, moral...or whatever the right word to use might be here. There are always at least some IF's...aren't there?