it comes in pints?

I tend to agree.

(Fortunately, relatively few Christians blow things up these days in the name of their religion...and the ones that do, I'm perfectly content to lock them up forever and throw away the key, or see capital punishment carried out).

The Beslan massacre was one of the saddest things I've ever seen on the news. And one of the things that made me sickest. I kept thinking about how the parents felt...I'm not one of those women who is all goopy and sentimental about children (I've even been accused of being anti-child), but for a group to use kids as a pawn in their games is just plain evil.

Beslan was an abomination. I made the terrible mistake of watching a "one year later" documentary on HBO, complete with news footage, interviews with children who survived, and footage of the school once it had been cleaned out.

I'd never been so angry and sick in my life. The people that did this were pure evil. Psychopaths. They didn't see anything wrong in targeting children. In fact, they looked at it as a sign of their own strength and devotion to their cause.

And, yes: they were MUSLIM. They were fanatics. And I find it totally unacceptable to pretend otherwise. It's a damn shame we can't kill them twice.

One aspect that the Al-Reuters article didn't mention is that a Russian Orthodox church building is a lot less accessible than other churches. Once the church is built, it's sacred ground. There are areas where nobody but the priest can go, and even the open parts are literally covered with Christian icons and symbolism. It's very unfriendly to outsiders. (I don't know if a Muslim would even be allowed inside.) This would not be a nice, non-sectarian affair like we have in America.

However, nothing stops the Muslims from setting up their own shrine. There's plenty of room, I'm sure. Let's see how ecumenical annd inclusive theirs is.

"One aspect that the Al-Reuters article didn't mention is that a Russian Orthodox church building is a lot less accessible than other churches."

Etc. etc. Well so what? You can't exactly waltz into a mosque either. No one was saying the monument would be a "nice, non-sectarian affair." Does that make what the Muslims said okay? Are we supposed to be worried that Muslims (and atheists and pagans and so on, I presume) will feel like they're getting cooties from all those scary "Christian symbols"? (Side question: do you go to one of those Catholic churches that are so modernized and plain that they are almost indistinguishable from Protestant churches? Because if not, you go to a building every mass that is encrusted with "Christian symbols" and as well has a few places that only priests are supposed to go.) I really don't see the point of your comment.

Alas, Andrea, my church's building is pretty bland, even by Protestant standards. But a Catholic church, even with the traditional architecture, is still pretty much open to the public. We don't usually have Royal Doors, for instance. I've seen Russian priests have to spend hours re-sanctifying a church after somebody wandered behind the iconostasis by mistake. Catholic (or Protestant) churches don't have anything like that, at least not that I've seen.

And Muslims do believe they're getting spiritual cooties from the images and icons in a Christian church. I've known Protestant Fundamentalists who were very uncomfortable in our buildings as well, for the same reason. They think of them as idols, which are forbidden to both them and Muslims.

Most memorials of this kind in America would indeed be "nice, non-sectarian affairs." Americans are, by and large, friendly and accommodating toward people of other religions, at least in settings like that one. We would probably go out of our way not to make the Christianity too in-your-face, because we're polite that way. I doubt the Russian Orthodox would be as welcoming, which was the point of my comment. Cultural differences do come into play in our perception of what's going on there. We're more incensed by this because in America, it would be a sillier dispute than it is in Russia.

But I thought I made it pretty clear that I think the Muslim objection was appalling. If they can't use the memorial, they should build their own and let the Christians have theirs. I don't have any sympathy for the minority demanding to be treated as though they're the whole of the population, which seems to be the Muslim M.O. They can't stand sharing a planet with infidels and dhimmis, and so they tyrannize when they're in the majority and clamor for equity where they're the minority, without any sense that they're demanding a double standard. That their own people were the cause of the mourning makes their whining more repugnant.

Andrea,
The point of his comment was that he made an interesting observation that taught me something I didn't know before about the Russian Orthodox Church. Please, do not EVER talk to a friendly poster on this site in that tone again.

Emily, FWIW, I wasn't offended by Andrea's response. I may not have made my point as clearly as I meant to.