At work last week I took the opportunity to ask a Sikh colleague about her approach to her faith. she was a little pressed for time, and simply replied: "it's very strict." I immediately thought that if a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim all gave that reply to the same question we would probably make 3 different assumptions: perhaps it is hard to keep a kosher kitchen in a gentile environment, or the Christian teachings on personal morality are tough to follow, or maybe Islam's five pillars place a great deal of stress on the individual.

It's not just a question of faith, though. If an indigenous Briton complains about their faith's strictness, we tend to put it down to their own personal circumstances (eg work situation, or teenage hormones); but for the rest we assume it's a conflict between an inflexible and outdated set of beliefs and the liberal, modern, western world. Given that the Christian Church is constantly at loggerheads with secular figures in the west, the diversity of muslim faith, and the fact that the Sikh religion is far younger than most people seem to think; is this not just another example of one rule for "us", and another for "them"