That may well be the case, but down on our little allotment Nosher and me avoid being bombarded by too much media exposure through the simple expedient of having one old radio tuned permanently to BBC Radio 4, and then it is used only sparingly.
However, as we sat on our old deckchairs this past afternoon, in front of our little allotment sheds, basking in a gloriously warm February sun (global warming or not, it was lovely!), a few slurps of Nosher's excellent parsnip wine was enough to set the debate off.
'I heard some Islamic expert claim that Sharia Law was perfect and had kept peace and harmony in the world for 1,400 years' announced Nosher. He looked approvingly at the piece of ground he had double-dug that morning.
'Some people appear to have a desparate need to garnish reality with wishful thinking' I observed, taking another sip of parsnip wine.
'Well, if it was so perfect, why did violence and brutality break out between different groups of Muslims immediately following the death of the Prophet Mohammed?' Nosher muttered 'and they've been at it on and off ever since' this an aside uttered in an almost conspiratorial voice.
'It seems to me that the greater the claims of perfection, the greater the ardour of the believers, the greater is the likelihood they will fall out with everyone else when others don't appear to be taking them seriously enough' I said. 'After all, if you believe your god is the one true god and all others are the inventions of evil infidels, it's bound to colour your attitude towards other people.'
'Mind you' said Nosher 'the Christians have been just as bad - look at the Crusades, the Wars of Religion, and the Inquisition. Why are some people so easily persuaded to become brutal oppressors - and why do millions more follow them and make excuses for them? It's bizarre.'
Now Nosher and I are not unique in having no religious beliefs at all - but then neither do we think it's worth the bother denying the possibility of God's Existence. We take the view that if there is a God, whatever we choose to believe will make not the slightest difference. We are what we are - we try to lead good lives tending our vegetables, we're nice to other people, and we abhor violence and intolerance and all sorts of nastiness.
But what we both object to is religous bigots telling us what we should believe, and casting aspersions upon our moral probity simply on the grounds that we won't join them in their bigotry. In our view these are misguided, disturbing people who are best treated as such. Why any decent person would wish to associate with such people or their views is a mystery to both Nosher and me.
Nonetheless, if the hard-liners took over in either Christianity or Islam and then exerted their influence over the good old Dis-United Kingdom we'd be classified as unbelievers and treated as the spawn of the Devil's loins. And then it would not take much for the persecution, torture and executions to begin again. We're only ever a generation away (at most) from returning to the most appalling systematic brutality carried out in God's Name.
So whilst Nosher and I are very happy to share the world with peaceful and tolerant Christians and Muslims (which most of them are, incidentally - for the time being, anyway) we're not too impressed by the fact that they both retain in their respective Holy Scriptures all sorts of injuctions against unbelievers as 'evil' and deserving of God's Wrath. This is just a convenient facility awaiting the emergence of some charismatic but psychopathic leader to come along and inspire in the faithful a return to the old ways of intolerant supremacist religion. Organised religion is all about fear, and greed, and power, and violence, however cleverly it is disguised. Personal faith may be about love (that's the best sort, anyway) but that too can be distorted into something twisted and barbaric.
Despite all the religious injunctions against us, Nosher and I don't consider ourselves to be 'evil', and we're content to await God's Judgement at the Pearly Gates when the time comes - if either exist. In the meantime, we think that whoever takes upon themselves the role of condemning us for our stance down here on Earth is playing God and should know better.
As for Sharia Law being 'incompatible' with Christianity, as the Bishop of Rochester claims - well, neither Nosher nor I wish to see a system of law in the UK that chops of the hands of thieves, stones women to death, and executes blasphemers. It's utterly barbaric and repulsive. How any decent person can possibly condone such practices is beyond both of us.
But it's worth reminding ourselves that not too long ago Christians were doing much the same sort of thing, and we should not delude ourselves that there are not some hard-line Christians who would like to return to that level of brutality. Believe me, they're out there somewhere, drooling with feverish anticipation into their Bibles whilst they chop up the kindling for burning heretics at the stake.
Apparently some people have yet to learn that using fear and brutality as instruments of religious government solve nothing - but that appears to be a piece of wisdom that is beyond many who champion the cause of extremism in any religion, whether it be Christianity or Islam. And there are millions more who consider themselves peaceful devout believers who turn a blind eye to the undercurrent of extremism in their own religion, be it Christianity or Islam.
That's an issue that any religion claiming to be peaceful should take very seriously, and be prepared to enter into open debate about what could be done to expose and disarm the extremists. Until organised religions, however perfect they may think themselves to be, are prepared to give up the moral narcissism they so love to indulge in, and take a very good look at their own failings, we will never see the end of religious extremism.
Meanwhile, down on our little allotment, Nosher and me will continue to till the soil peacefully, and drink parsnip wine, and watch the proceedings from afar.
More from overthegardenfence soon.
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