Editor,

As a pastor in Farmville, I would like to express my dismay at the repeated vandalism at the local Islamic Center. My faith and theirs are quite different, and given the right opportunity, I would happily seek to persuade a Muslim to follow Christ, but I am a firm believer in their right to freedom of religion.

The right to worship God according to your own conscience is one of the fundamental principles underlying our great nation. People have every right to reject the teachings of Islam or any other religion, and this principle provides no excuse for violence done in the name of Islam or any other religion.

Just as Americans enjoy the freedom of religion, they enjoy the freedom of speech to express their acceptance or rejection of religion, but anonymously spraying graffiti is not how that freedom is exercised. This vandalism at the mosque is not just an attack on Islam, or even an attack on religion in general (as evidenced by the language in the first instance), it is an attack on the very basis of our nation.

Paul Robelen

Pastor, Biblical Baptist Church