Two Churches

I am thankful that I live in the United States where religious tolerance is alive and well.

Not so in parts of the Philippines:

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - Father Teresito Soganub doesn't look like a Catholic priest and, from the outside, his cathedral doesn't look like a church.

In his parish, tucked away in Marawi, the only Islamic city in the Philippines, it's easier that way.

"To avoid arguments and to avoid further misunderstandings we just plant the cross deep in our hearts," said the 47-year-old priest, who doesn't wear a crucifix or a clerical collar and sports a beard out of respect for his Muslim neighbors.

Or in Qatar, for that matter, where the nation's first Catholic church has recently opened without a cross, bell, steeple or sign.

It is one of the great hypocrisies of our day, where groups like CAIR and the media manufacture events of intolerance toward Muslims in our secular country, when it is the practice of Islam in Muslim countries that demands dominance over other religions.