Two interesting letters to the editor appeared today in the Gulf News:

Revert, not convert

I went through the article about people who presented their views about reverting to Islam (Gulf News, October 23).

Actually, if you go deep into Islam and consult any alim/ulema (Islamic scholar), it should be "X has reverted to Islam", and not converted. All the souls before this world was created accepted Allah as one. So, basically all the creatures in this world accepted the faith.

When addressing any issue regarding Islam, please use the word Allah and not God.
From Mr B.K.A. Faizee
Abu Dhabi

That's an interesting use of the word 'revert', which in my mind has the connotation of 'going back to bad habits or practices'. I don't think Mr. Faizee meant it in that way, but it is an interesting concept, indeed.

I've often pondered Islam's place in the history of comparative religions as the last revealed religion. It is the newest and most recent in time and at the same time the most ancient and hallowed religion in the Judeo-Christian worldview in terms of its claim to reverting to the true, genuine Old Testament religion.

In other words, it gets back to the fundamentals of religion, much as Christian fundamentalists or evangelicals claim they have, and deny some two hundred years of the history of the Catholic Church as superfluous, as if history does not matter at all and can be ignored and dismissed, so they can comfortably live in their shining citadels of consumer goods on the hills of all the subdivisions across America with a clear conscience that George Bush is saved. (What a non sequitur that last clause is!)

The other letter:

Blasphemy

The news item "Illegal trade in sacred and antique art booms" (Gulf News, October 24) states, "statues of Christian saints and gods..." It was nothing short of blasphemous. It suggests Christianity has several gods which is hearsay, and indicates the correspondent is unaware of this. The world knows Christianity is a monotheistic religion. Perhaps the writer was also talking about Hindu temples, but a misprint cannot justify such an offensive sentence.

I hope the editor will take more time to review the articles prior to publication. Such blasphemous articles should be trashed. The sensitivities of the Christian community should be respected.
From Mr K.G. Pereira
Dubai

That is often a ploy that Muslims use to indict Catholics as worshippers of gods, that is, the Holy Blessed Trinity. Therefore, Hindus and Catholics are lumped together. Notice I would not dare to lump Christians and Catholics together because true Christians do not venerate or adore the Blessed Virgin Mary. Having said that, I am in the camp of the fundamentalists and evangelicals who do not consider Catholics as one and the same as Christians. Their ploy is to probe Catholics as to how they feel about Christ, do they really believe in the spirit of Jesus Christ in their hearts. This usually puts your average Catholic into a quandary. Yes, he says, I believe in Christ, but then he hesitates and perhaps unconsciously admits to himself, and also the Holy Spirit. The fundamentalist then, with an air of triumph, says, see, I told you, you are not a Christian, you hesitated there for a second.