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As ever with Islam the debate was heated and I'm thinking about hitting the Beeb with a claim for RSI as my fingers are so sore from typing . . .

. . . but we had some eloquent chat, quality blog comments and, from our guests, some corking anecdotes.

Mohammed in Iraq kicked things off: "The Niqab (veil) is not part of Islam - it's an add on is it not?"

Ajmal Masroor: "One should not have to cover their face - esp if living in the West. It is not a prescription for everybody"

Mona Siddiqui: "This has been rumbling on for years. Muslim women have always covered in different ways. It's really a question of what do we mean by shame and modesty? How can you have decorum without necessarily having covering? Most muslims should be honest enought to accept that. This is a contentious issue for muslims and non-muslims who are baffled by this."

Mohammed then mentioned how some women in Iraq have started to cover up because of fear which Mona picked up on as getting to the nub of the matter, i.e. your cultural context dictates your dress code.

Ajmal illuminated this with a wry observation: "I got on a plane from Saudi to England and most women were covered but when the plane landed the same group of people were not covered. I thought I was on a different plane!"

Justin in Arizona thought that Jack Straw's comments were a "mis-cross-cultural comment" and wanted to know "Why is it that in the media we hear of calls for Jihad towards the West and also hear from Western muslims telling us that Jihad is an internal struggle?"

Mona said Jihad was "the mental and emotional hostility that Muslims feel deep down" while Ajmal gave us a live on air example of Jihad as an inner struggle. We had placed in front of him a tasty (³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ) tuna sandwich and banana ready for him to break his Ramadan fast at precisely 6.30 pm. The meal was exerting an influence on our hungry guest who commented: "There is a sandwich in front of me, can you imagine the personal struggle I'm going through?"

Ali, originally from Pakistan but living Germany, asked if Mohammed himself was ever insulted during his life?

Ajmal replied that indeed he was and that Mohammed urged "patience, patience, patience." When asked whether that patience existed today within Muslims Ajmal was skeptical: "We need to excise our internal demons. We need an ovehaul from within ourselves. We can easily integrate within any society."

Mona said that to "talk of the Ummah (World-wide community of Muslims) as a monlithic community was not helpful. Muslims need to get away from depicting themselves as all feeling the same thing."

She then intimated that Muslims were too often ready to take the cynical stance: "If America was to carve out a Palestinian state tomorrow would the Muslims say the US was duplicitous or would they be happy to have their own state?"

Mona: "Generation upon generation need to learn that your religion is not being threatened just because someone is
critiqueing it."

Ajmal: "There is nothing shameful about someone's body. What you've got you don't have to flaunt it. You just have to have some modesty."

In response to why men aren't required to cover themselves Mona said: "The Koran and classical tradition of law has always emphasised that the onus of tradition is on women. Modesty is not just limited to clothing. It cannot just be about clothing. The relationships between men and women concerns modesty too."

One listener asked why there was no Jihad against oppressive Muslim leaders such as Mahmound Ahmadinejad, Ajmal said: "Muslim or non-Muslim. We should stand against them."

Mona: "The freedom of speech thing is a red herring. No one has an absolute right. A civil society cannot exist unless there is engagement and respect for plural voices."

One caller brought up the question of male domination of women in Islam to which Mona replied: "Putting the onus onto women is a complete distaortion of what the Koran says. The Koran puts women as equals with men."

Ajmal said it is not about men or women but about who is most "God-conscious."

Ajmal said: "I can practise my faith much better in Britain than anywhere else in the world. In the other countries lets get rid of the despots."

Mona: "There is no point in talking about Islam in the abstract when we're not willing to face up to the realities."

Gregory asked: "What's the state of dialogue between Islam and Catholicism?" and achieved the rare distinction of uniting our two panellists in agreement:

Mona, who is involved in academic dialogue: "There are all sorts of dialogues but to be effectiove it has to be local. We can have world religous leaders meeting but unless we're willing to stretch out to our neighbours and colleagues it has no effect" and Ajmal said "Islam recognises Christianity is a valid religion."