> > And that will also influence your judgements. Clap, clap, clap. Applause, > applause, applause.
Fine..I'll take the bait... And how else do you propose I avoid being harassed by the police when it turns out that the person I rented out the flat to is a suspected terrorist. I didn't say I would pass judgment that he/she is a terrorist just on the basis of their Muslim name, just that I would be more wary. Since you've culled out other parts of my post - I'll restate. I didn't say I wouldn't rent to a Muslim, just not to somebody I didn't know at all or wasn't referred to me by somebody I know. Contrary to how you make it sound, I *don't* avoid Muslims like the plague. But neither do I want to be the open-minded stereotype-rejecting progressive-thinking idiot. What you might not have guessed from my name is that I am from Kerala. The place where my family stay in Cochin is a predominantly Muslim area, its called Kakkanad which means land of Muslims. We have Muslim neighbors. Their son, after attending a madrassa for a few months changed into a different person and started beating up his parents and sisters (they themselves admit that this was the reason, or at least it is after this that he changed). I wonder what happened to the other kids who attended the same madrassa. I remember a whole bunch of people being beaten black and blue in Palghat (where I did my engineering) because they went for an ill-advised "victory march" through a Muslim neighbourhood after India beat Pakistan in cricket! :). In my college, a few of my Muslim friends were no longer invited to the meetings of some Islamic Students Association (not sure of the name) because they used to drink. Incidentally, almost all of the Muslim students were part of this so called association except for maybe a handful. (Incidentally, Kerala has 15% reservation for Muslims in professional colleges and there were about a thousand students in my college apart from those who get in through the general quota, just to give you an idea of the numbers). So, you might be one of those who rejected that identity (like my friends), and so you do have the right to be offended and which is why I apologized. Incidentally, somebody I met at a random party and became friends with a few weeks ago, admitted last weekend that he had contributed money to the LTTE. This guy went to BITS and an IIM. So if a good education does not take this out of you, why do you expect that it will remove all stereotypes (assuming you weren't baiting me with that oft-used provocation too)? Kiran
