I live in a relatively small city in the South-Eastern United States. Here, you can be an outcast for many creative reasons. One of the most interesting to me is religion. I don't consider myself to be a Christian; I believe in God, but not in the way Christianty teaches. Currently I am trying to read as much as I can about all religions of the world.

Yesterday I checked out a book titled Islam from my school library. I recieved all kind of strange looks from people. One fellow peer even remarked, "I'm not touching that book, they ruined our country." Did they? Did they really?

I'm pretty sure that the US government ruined the country, not a few Muslim extremists. Apparently though, some people here think that any one who is not a Christian is terrible. Scratch that, most people here think that. Although, if they knew anything about Islam at all, they would know that Islam teaches about being peaceful.

For the record, I think that if you're Jewish, Islamic, Christian, Hindu, or whatever your religion is, you should still try your best to learn about other religions. There is a huge difference between learning about a religion and practicing it. If you read a book about the history of Poland, that doesn't make you Polish, it just increases your knowledge about Poland. It's the same thing with reading books about religion.