I just finished an excellent book, Three Cups of Tea, byu Greg Mortenson and David Relin. Highly recommend it.

Mortenson has spent the past 15 years starting schools for girls in the remotest regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. One person who has made a huge difference. Quite an inspiration.

His vantage point on Islam, as an American who has earned his stripes in the Middle East in remarkable ways, is helpful. Provides a good balance to my own more radical view. He deals with rural Muslims in undeveloped regions. My view reflects study of the origins of Islam and the life of Mohammed and the Koran.

Mortenson was a mountain climber who went to scale K2, did not make it, and stumbled by happenstance into a rural Muslim village in Pakistan. They took him in with compassion. He repaid their hospitality by returning to build schools to educate girls and counteract the madrassahs that raise terrorists.

All in all, a good read and very inspiring.

You can also visit his site at www.threecupsoftea.com.