I often speak about the variety of our languages and colours, mentioned as one of the Signs of God in the Qur'an, usually in stuff where I'm talking about multi-racial and cultural tolerance in the UK. But I must say that it added a certain piquancy to be able to talk about it to the vast audience of the World Service, imagining their extraordinary variety, such a complete manifestation of the sign that I was talking about. It really felt like an honour and a privilege.

I like to think that I'm normal. Don't we all? Though on reflection I suppose that some of my friends and acquaintances might disagree with me. After all, I am a muslim, and most of them aren't. Even so, we have a lot in common.

My choosing to be a muslim may seem strange to them, but for many of them the idea of following any religion at all seems quite peculiar. Organised religion has not been very fashionable in this part of the world of late, though as with most fashions what goes around comes around, and along with many others I fully expect a religious revival to be happening any day now. It's just too hard for people to survive without God for any length of time.

The fact is it is normal to be different. Even twins can be distinguished in some way or another, and the variety of our tongues and colours is one of the signs of God mentioned in the Qur'an. We all have our own individual tastes and preferences. Some we are born with, and some we acquire from our families and our societies. Our individual inclinations lead us to explore in different directions, and some of us will be poets and some engineers, but when we return to common ground we can learn from one another, and mankind as a whole becomes richer.

Now for engineers and scientists, their ideas have some kind of objectivity that can be tested and agreed on after experiment. But science only deals with a very small part of human experience, the things that can be measured and quantified, and the things that cannot be measured are often much more important in our lives. Can love be explained to one who has never experienced it? How do you explain Beauty to one who doesn't see it? You cannot quantify such values.

Is Beauty only in the eye of the beholder? Clearly this is partly true, yet we do seem to formulate ideas of beauty that are shared throughout a community. Similarly with other values, they mean something to the individual but there will also be a certain way that those values are defined by the community. As a group we define the ways that we express our value systems, but as with individuals, communities can have very different ideas of what is to be preferred, and these differences can be seen in our different cultures.

Problems come when people see those differences without recognising the values which are being expressed. Anyone who has travelled through foreign parts knows the feeling of culture shock when what is normal for a community is different to what is normal for us. In any number of situations we react to and respond with the wrong signals. We talk in different cultural languages, and it is easy to take offense.

Within the muslim world itself there is wide cultural variety. Behaviour that may be quite normal in one place may be considered unacceptable and shocking in another. In the ethnic melting pot of Glasgow, it will be interesting to see how the new generation of muslims, born in Scotland rather than Egypt, Malaysia or Pakistan, shape their culture to express their Islamic values in a way that can be understood by their non-muslim friends.

[Qur'an, from the chapter called Salvation vv. 63-70]

The servants of the All-merciful are those who walk in the earth modestly, and who, when the ignorant address them, say, "Peace"; Those who pass the night prostrate to their Lord and standing; who say, "Our Lord, turn from us the punishment of Hellfire; surely its punishment is torment most terrible; evil it is as a lodging-place and an abode"; Those who, when they spend, are neither wasteful nor niggardly, but between that is a just stand; Those who call not upon another god with God, nor slay the soul God has forbidden except for just cause, nor commit fornication, for whosoever does that shall meet the price of sin - doubled shall be his punishment on the Resurrection Day, and he shall dwell therein humbled, except for whoever repents, and believes, and does righteous deeds - for God will change the evil of such persons into good, for God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate;