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sister my view is that we can approach this peacefully but there are many hurdles, the media is not playing a positive role while the leaders of the west needs the hatred to gain votes and support for wars, they have launched wars on countries which are not significant threat to them  ( see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PupXTUn9Mo&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fenglish%2Ealjazeera%2Enet%2Fprogrammes%2Fempire%2F2009%2F04%2F2009430131311544246%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51slTcqKqwU&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fenglish%2Ealjazeera%2Enet%2Fprogrammes%2Fempire%2F2009%2F05%2F20095613815933961%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded needlessly thousand and millions of people who never saw the west died in these cruel wars. i don't understand what was the need for the pope Benedict to talk against islam when we need to respect and understand each other. when a british christian teacher was arrested in sudan i think a year ago  there was uproar in the EU specially britian and people like Tony blair and Gordon brown came on television to condemn the arrest and eventually she was realeased, but sister what about Dr Afia siddiqi who was arrested with her children and tortured, a woman should not be treated like this. honestly we here cry and pray for her safety, we are helpless in this case but we have our trust on God..  here my city was so peaceful before 2001 but thanks to the western powers occupation in our nieghbourhood my country is in flames.

the leaders can't be changed but atleast we could approach the ordinary people in the west with respect and good intentions to understand each other and sister this is the right time. sister many people like you came to islam and people like you and good law abiding immigrant muslims could show the true image of islam and those who are not ignorant may understand us.

you asked sister how i handled situations? let me share two examples- 2 yrs ago i was coming to manchester from Glasgow by train and an English man in his i think  50s was sitting with me. i was having a snack and i offered to him, than he asked where i am from. i started the conversation by appreciating the beauty of Scotland and he told me about his place, after some time i asked wheather he believed in God, he said "yes" (was a protestant) than i told him what we muslims believe and told him that we also believe in prophet Abraham(Ibrahim),Moses, joseph etc. after listening to me he became curious and asked questions about islam, it turned out very well. in the second example a german student of anthropology came here through the university where my father studied, we offerd our home to him and my brother and i thought its a good chance to understand and learn from each other. he stayed for 3 months and we had very enlightening discussion about God and each others religions(he was a religious christian), i avoided topics which would create differences and so everthing went well Alhamdullilah, when he was leaving i gave him  the Quran with english translation(his english was good). what we need to do is sister to show a good example as muslims and we should first build trust and than we can talk, that is what i did.

your approach is fine sister, you are muslim and you live among non muslims, its a difficult situation for you and other reverts, may Allah help all brothers and sisters in islam in there good work. ameen.

i agree we must try but sister unfortunately i dont see peace soon in my life time but yes we can try and hope for the better and inshAllah time will come that these matters will be resolved but only Allah knows when.

yes this forum is a good place to start and its encouraging when non muslims also join in.

Salamualikum.