This is a comment on an article titled “Practical lesson from Melbourne Convention: God, men and pluralism” (the Post, Dec. 21)
Interesting observations, I picked up the same newspaper in Melbourne and noticed the number of people declaring themselves non-religious.
I am glad to see the diversity. There are Bushs and Hassans everywhere, no matter where you go, including a pluralistic nation like India, you will find the Thackerays who want the North Indians, the Tamils and the Muslims out of Bombay, including the legendary Amitabh Bachan.
Just recently, a few extremists beat up a Sikh student in West Texas, then you have the Klu Klux Klan. There were several men right in front of the convention center holding the banner “Christ is the only way” and something to the effect that all others are false religions.
The hope for all of us is that, every nation, community or subcommunity is made up of 98 percent of moderates. Indeed, the majority of people, any people, are good people.
About 1 percent are liberals, 0.5 percent fanatics, and 0.5 percent extremists.
No matter how you slice the population, you will find comparatively similar numbers, whether it is an Arab, American, Indonesian or Australian, or Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist or any one, you will find similar proportions.
Thank God, no one has a monopoly on fanaticism; it helps us receive mukti, freedom from stereotyping people.
Mike Ghouse
Dallas, Texas, United States
