Asalaamu Alaikam,

And now, to "flip the coin," so to speak, I will post a link to an article about tolerance in Islam. Islam is in fact a very tolerant religion, although many Muslims may not be so tolerant. The poor behavior of many Muslims today is what makes it so very hard to try to tell a non-Muslim about the beauty of Islam.

I am a revert to Islam, so I feel that I have that unique ability of being able to remember what my perceptions were of Islam as a non-Muslim. With those memories, I am able to put myself in a non-Muslims shoes and take a good, hard look at Muslims. I can tell you that I generally do NOT like what I see. We come off as a hard people, devoid of humor, and lacking compassion. We seem unfriendly and standoffish. We appear to be heartless and cold, and very quick to condemn anyone who is not Muslim.

Unfortunately the "face" of Islam scares off a great many people. I would like to take this opportunity to say here now that Muslims do NOT accurately portray Islam. Please do not judge Islam by the Muslims. As one of my friends (another revert) says, "Islam is perfect, Muslims are not."

So, without further adieu, here's the link to the article about tolerance in Islam: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503544482