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At the risk of drawing myself into this debate, I would state that I disagree with the idea that Christians cannot claim to be doing harm in the name of their religion - because essentially, it is not the religion giving the justification in any case, it is the person finding the justification through the religion themselves. I hate to use such as extreme example, but one can hardly forget that the KKK were a group of Christian extremists, and if you would like more references, Wikipedia has an entire article dedicated to Christian extremism. The actions of these groups and individuals do not mean that the Christian scriptures encourage or reward their behaviour, or that all Christians have these views (I know this is not related to the point you are making, but I think it is important to state), simply that that is how they interpreted it. It is all about personal interpretation and personal ethics - the problem, indeed, is not even limited to religion. How many examples have there been throughout history of scientists performing deeply unethical experiments and research to 'further the cause of science'? Simply put, the issue is universal, and to say that Christians are exempt is, I am afraid, absurd; given a way, any extremist with an unethical agenda will be able to justify their actions; this does not diminish the value of others of their kind, be they good Muslims or good Christians or whatever. When religions can be interpreted so many different way, the voice of one member cannot be said to speak for the people.

Two nice feel good "summer songs from UK group Saint Etienne. The first from 1995, the second from 2012.

@Rubrica: Excellent point. I had the same thoughts, or the essence of it, but I wish I could have expressed them as well as you did. @AGJM: I might have overreacted as well, I have to admit that I skipped parts of your quotes though I did examine the latter more thoroughly. I didn't want to start a debate on religion*. I assumed that since you're writing an essay you had studied the subject extensively, but I hoped to introduce an aspect of the Muslim culture you might have not been familiar with. I'm glad you found it pleasurable to read. Writing it I felt like I sounded like I was explaining things that didn't need explaining and that I seemed condescending but I didn't want to do either. *it's more or less pointless unless all parties are able to keep their cool and discuss respectfully. On the internet, more so on a forum people are not only more likely to be overtly blunt but more likely to take offense. And to rant: I need to do some paintings and drawings for a school I'm trying to apply to, but I have little motivation.

Really nice colors for the sand dune image. Looks like the sunset's rays are hitting the sand and making the color change.

I usually use the color tint plugin in Ed Harvey's plugin pack EDIT: just realized I got ninja'd five times xD

Nice trick welshblue. Thanks for the tip. I never thought of that. I still have much to learn.

If you want to keep flesh coloured arms etc, duplicate your starting image, run the effect on that layer and then zoom in and use the eraser tool on the arms etc

I think what's important to remember is that it's not Islam that's bad ... it's a bad Islamist. The same goes for any religion I know a man who will sit for hours arguing the christian cause, yet he'll go out drinking, go home and beat his wife up. Then wonders why no-one takes his spouting seriously

Edit because I uploaded wrong size.

A sand dune with an eye in the middle. Love the way you've done the colours too. Keep that tablet still or yu will get sand everywhere