Reading and Wriding

Naff title I know - but that's me!

Had my first decent ride of the year today - the canal path is dryer and harder, and when I set out it was mild(ish) so I toddled off to Salts Mill for a decent (if small) cappuchino. Found out I'd overreached myself coming home:

1. The wind had been behind me all the way out.
2. I've not done a 40 mile ride for a while.
3. One small cappuchino is not enough fluid or sugar.

Once revived by lunch and a large cola - finished a fantastic book:

The Islamist by Ed Husain

I have to say (to my shame) I have not read enough about Islam - but I think this book made up well for the oversight.

Ed tells of his conversion to a radicalised Muslim (an Islamist) and then back to a more moderate mystical (Sufi) form which he claims is still the predominant though unvoiced Moslem belief in the UK.

Reading the book you follow his journey, in belief and also on his "Road to Damascus" (yes he understands the allusion - but in his case he goes to Damascus to learn Arabic and find Sufi Moslems and Christians co-existing peacefully). He also finds the Hijab as the traditional clothing of - not Moslems - but Arab Christians! He also sees elsewhere, the horrors of a racist dictatorial regime - in the name of Islam.

All of this makes him all the more keen to pursue the loving peacable form of Sufism he has discovered.

Fascinating for me as an "evangelical" Christian is the parallels between some of the worst facets of evangelicalism and their equivalents in some streams of Islam. One example being the negative effects of "celebrity".

I'd lend it to you - but I borrowed it (from my son).