These scripts for Thought for the Day seem to have a lot of warring factions in them compared to the rest of what I write. This is, of course in the nature of the news which is their context. No matter how far you have to look for it, conflict is always seen as worthy of reportage. But good news is no news, as they say.

Indonesia’s unrest shifted focus this weekend, with muslims in Djakarta burning down a catholic church, a riot in which six people died. But beware any simplistic generalisation to a wider Muslim-Christian conflict. Local rivalries can always explode unexpectedly, like an Old Firm match getting wildly out of hand. Sometimes such things lead to war, but mostly, like the Indonesians we just live alongside our neighbours.

Of course there’s a divide of cultures in Djakarta, reflected in the choice of first place to burn, a gambling establishment. Muslim societies have well-defined objections to gambling, and just like us, must decide how to limit and police what’s permitted. We have our own problems with gambling and its social consequences, and it’s a long way from Church Bingo, via the Lottery, to Las Vegas and organized crime, but there is a link - the addictive nature of what’s being dealt with.

With gambling, as with alcohol, we have a potentially self-destructive human compulsion. When muslim rebels in Southern Russia took over local towns, their first act was to destroy all of the vodka. A fundamentalist act, or a cultural protest, or just a desire to change certain priorities in society? Need the whole world accept the social model of the west?

In some muslim countries, expatriate workers get their alcohol supplies at special stores, off limits to the muslim community, much as addicts here get regular supplies at the local clinic of what the rest of the population considers to be a pernicious substance. But muslims have always tolerated Christian use of alcohol, because it’s a sacramental part of their religion, and a protective and permissive relationship to the Christian faith was always an integral part of Islam.

Muslims are used to multiculturalism and pluralism. The majority of muslims in the world live in a minority cultural situation, and most muslim majority countries have large integrated non-muslim minorities. It’s unfortunate then, when in the economic meltdown of Indonesia, Churches are seen as a symbol of cultural imperialism, but it really isn’t just a muslim/christian problem.

Muhammad said: “Whoever believes in God and the last day should do no harm to his neighbour”.