Do know any Muslims on a personal level?
I’ve known a number of Muslims down the years, all work colleagues, and all perfectly nice people. Most Muslim graduate professionals, in my experience, are not at all happy with Jihadists and fundamentalists – just as educated Christians (in Europe, not sure about you lot across the pond) tend to be very unhappy about our own fundamentalist nutters. Several that I’ve known have been happy to join colleagues for the odd drink, although not during Ramadan. My deputy, who stepped into my shoes (poor man!) on my retirement, is one. He is interested in the theology of the other ‘Religions of the Book’ as Muslims call them, and we’ve had many fascinating conversations in this area, also on the subject of the Raj and the British Empire – we derived lots of amusement from the fact that were were both Bloody Colonials (Ireland and Pakistan).
