Thursday 16 September 2010

Kos by night

Just finished a very enjoyable, leisurely ride around some of the ancient sites here - the Roman odeum, some mosaics and frescos plus a reconstructed Roman house from the 3rd century. Last night after dinner I meandered around with the dynamo switched on, admiring the town at night and taking some photos.

I headed off to bed, "ke-li-nich-ta", and ended up watching a German TV  channel for over an hour - an interesting report on Islam in Europe and elsewhere. It took a somewhat alarmist line but ended by saying Europe's Muslims have the chance to lead Islam worldwide into a new era of democracy and openness. It's a difficult question - just what does your average Muslim think about things like conversion to another religion? It reminds me a bit of fuundamentalist Christianity - if you corner them, they will admit that they think followers of other religions are heading for eternal damnation. That's a bit different to believing a Muslim who converts to another religion should be killed, though. That sort of belief ended in Christianity with the religious wars of the 16th-17th century. So Islam has a few hundred years of catching up to do.

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