Too all of you who no longer want to read about this subject, please do not read on. For those of you who wish to continue, please do so but understand that this is my opinion only. I have found these postings to be of great benefit and I have read some emails and learned some valuable things that perhaps would not have been possible if I chose not to read them. I think the issue of religion, and all it's particulars should be further discussed, debated, argued, etc. (Sometimes when you wade through the muck and mud or perceived muck and mud, there is a the oasis at the other side.) At least then we have a chance to know what types of problems we have perhaps a solution may arise. Perhaps the best show I saw on television happened just a few weeks ago regarding tolerance between religions/beliefs or rather the lack of. Unfortunately I can not give you the name of the program nor the station...sorry for that...but it was basically children under the age of 13 from Israel discussing their religion and how they felt about one another, one another meaning jews and muslims(palestinian). On the one side, we gained the perspective of children following the Jewish faith and their reaction to their muslim neighbors and vice versa. Now these were children mind you, who didn't even want to know or speak to a child of the opposite religion and they firmly believed that the holy land was theirs and theirs only. After learning about their feelings and thoughts, the interviewer set up a meeting between some jewish children and some muslim children and guess what...they played and had a good time together like normal children do. It even appeared that they were friends. After the fun and playing the interviewer sat down and said, "What do you think now of each other?" The children honestly stated that although they were glad to meet, they realized that this was a temporary thing and once the interviewer was gone, the relationships that they had established would be disolved and their efforts in vain. Some had tears due to the reality of their situation. Now, religious debate/fighting is a part of everyone's history in every part of the world. I am still optimistic and hopeful that we as humans can come up with a way to stop killing each other and co-exist with each other, keeping our religions intact, because this issue will not go away by itself and I would rather deal with it now. Now, so that the issues do not keep going into the next generation and affecting them and their relationships. But, I prefer to keep discussing things, everything, in hopes that one day, someone will come up with a brilliant idea to make us be able to live in harmony, yet keep our religious beliefs intact. I am muslim so I will say Allah. Allah has created masterpieces, everyone of us is a masterpiece of art in every fiber of our existence. I don't want to continue to see communication stop...because that's when we start communicating with guns, bombs, etc and masterpieces are destroyed. I tend to tolerate things when I have more knowledge regarding them. I am muslim and I would never judge someone who was not muslim and didn't believe what I did because it is not my place to do so. I will leave that up to Allah because I would trust the judgement of Allah, who has created water, over the likes of me that simply drinks it. Perhaps my emotion is apparent but I feel so strongly about religion as an important issue of discussion so that we may all learn something from each other. If I have offended anyone, my apologies. If I have not made much sense and have taken up valuable space and time, my apologies too. Thank you, Halima S. -----Original Message----- From: Ablie Njie- lekbi [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 1:06 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Celebrating Holidays of the Disbelievers/Ginny_ENOUGH OF THIS. To all subcribers, I must first say that like Joe Sambou, I have been observing some of the postings pertaining to this topic. I have been reluctant to add any comments due to the fact that I honestly believe that there are more important issues we should be addressing. I must first give a word of cautiion and reiterate that "religion is the Opium of the Mass", therefore people will always have the tendency to assert thier beliefs as the one with superiority. I am from a family which consist of three surnames namely, Williams, Thomas and Njie , and we have grown up happily without any regard to which religion we belong. I cannot recall ever having any problems celebrating Koriteh or Christmas separate from my family. We all lived in harmony and my mom has given us the liberty and freedom to choose our religion. My Kids are named Mary( Not Mariama) and Susana (Not Sosseh)Njie after my christian part of the family , and they are free to choose their own religions when they grow up. I think like most people, we are sick and tired of this futile debate. Why can't we pay attention to the issues happening at home and try to find answers to our problems. Ablie Njie- LEKbi <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>