I have been unabashedly critical of the Muslim community at large for their seeming tolerance of mass homicide and horrid maiming in the name of Islam, while tens of thousands will pour into the streets to protest a satirical cartoon.  

In Egypt, a reputed haven of religious hatred and intolerance, something extraordinary has happened.  Muslims turned out during a recent Holy Mass to use their own bodies as human shields against Islamic extremists waging Jihad against Egyptian Coptic Christians. 

I am well aware that intolerance of non-Muslims is all the rage in the middle east and in other places around the world like Pakistan.   I take it as a sign that there is some hope yet that Muslims will grow increasing weary of having their collective name sullied by sickening crimes against humanity perpetrated in the name of Islam.

I subscribe to the magazine Cruising World, a rag dedicated to sailors who cruise around the globe.  It's a fantasy thing - I don't have a half million dollars or more to drop on an ocean-going sailboat and circumnavigate, much less the time to do so.  Anyway, in 2010 a world cruiser and regular contributor to the magazine, Captain Gary 'Fatty' Goodlander, wrote a scathing article in CW of his experiences trying to help a fellow sailor, stricken by a serious heart attack, traverse the Suez Canal.  Goodlander wrote of the horrors of dealing with indifferent Egyptian officials who were only interested in milking bribes from a presumably rich guy, desperately ill.  In the January 2011 issue of Cruising World, Goodlander took a few more swipes at Egyptian 'hospitality' and referred to that region of the world as generally racist and intolerant while declaring he would never visit Egypt proper in the future.  I don't blame him for his sentiments one bit.  I point this out to juxtapose the heroism of some Egyptian Muslims putting their own lives on the line to try to protect Coptic Christians with rampant calloused indifference by other Egyptian Muslims. 

And it tells me that, while the shielding of Coptic Christians is a hopeful sign, there is a very long way to go for the greater Muslim community.  A very long way to go.