Patrick McShane’s commentary last week was well written, but I couldn’t help but notice two major concerns that kept popping up when I was reading it.

First, his uncalled for shot at Archbishop Raymond Burke; whether or not McShane agrees with the Archbishop’s politics was irrelevant to make his point, using the imagery of the KKK as extremism was sufficient. The parting shot at Archbishop Burke was completely unnecessary.

Secondly, while I do hold that Islam is at its core a religion of peace similarly to McShane, I would like to point out a probable reason to why all the people he mentioned reacted poorly to the Fast-a-thon.

According to McShane, those offending individuals saw Muslims as just “a bunch of terrorists” based on the actions of a few. While it’s true that radicalism is a large problem in religion, political faction or otherwise, the fact of the matter is, very rarely do we see Christian radicals walk into a crowded public square and blow themselves up to make a statement. What we do see is Islamic radicals, scorned by even a simple misquote in international media, as evidenced by the furor over Pop Benedict’s words last year, destroy innocent lives to make a point.

There is a difference between the danger level of radicalist Christianity and radicalist Islam. To think that they are equally dangerous is foolhardy.

Peter Barron
Senior