It is very sad that one can have the ability to speak to an audience but be so filled with bias they do not deserve to be listened to.

As unfortunate as it is - and it directly answers the writer's own question in her essay, it is very . As horrible as it is, in my experience whenever I see a middle-eastern or Asiatic name writing about this sort of area, I instantly know they are disgustingly biased.

And it is this very point why there are so many problems in the middle-east. Apart from Israel, the entire region is a basin of racism, misogyny, homophobia, and murderous hatred for those outside the clan.

That there is simply no room in the closed minds of those from such disgustingly tribal cultures to even see for a millisecond the possibility that perhaps they should analyse the other sides argument, is a scary notion. Particularly for westerners, who are so very open to arguments by opposing sides.

Yet we have leftists in the west genuinely asking why the US can have nuclear weapons, but Iran cannot. Do we let children drive cars? Of course not, and although nobody wants to say it - I will - non-western cultures are children compared to us. Their laws and values attest to this. Look how they all treat refugees for example, India shoots them on sight along the border.

Yet no outrage by leftists. Why? Because Indians are held to a lower standard because they are incredibly racist and intolerant as to live under a filthy caste system.

The ONLY Islamic writer I have seen with any sense of impartiality is Tanveer Ahmed - and he has exposed what I (growing up in Sydney's west) already knew - that it is widespread and very common - not even thought about in fact - how racist and tribal Bangladeshi's, Indians, Pakistani's, and all the other sub-continent cultures, are...

...the sort of things he talked about was how common it was for his friends and family to laugh at Australia's generosity as stupid - welfare, Medicare, and so on, and worse, how western women are uncovered whores.

It is this sort of tribalism that leads to the problems in the middle-east. Think about it.

Australians and other westerners tribalism extends to sport, but its not even that bad. But in the mid-east, Shia's get blown up by Sunni's, they both hate the Sufi's, and don't even talk about ethnicity.

Arabs look at Asian Muslims as trash, as evidenced by the way they treat their workers from SE Asia.

When they go to Mecca for the pilgrimage, they are all put up in hotels according to ethnicity, as there are just too many fights.

So, we get lectures on racism when we have institutions designed to promote diversity, gender equality, and we teach all through school and in the home that women and men are equals, that colour is irrelevant (Australians, like all western cultures, have high rates of inter-ethnic marriage - the lowest are the tribal Arabs and Japanese (who are extremely racist - just ask a South Korean).

And when I say racism, in Australia all one gets is a comment in the street from an idiot. We have laws against it, our people frown upon those who commit it, and people in power who do are removed from office.

In the non-west, racism is INSTITUTIONAL, that is, its official. There are laws restricting Christians for example from obtaining officer status in the Iranian military, and in Saudi Arabia being a Christian is punishable by death.

We all know about their backward scummy laws against women, who are considered chattel in the third world.

The article, and the writer, are a joke. Come back when you've learnt about liberalism. And what will astonish her the most, is that although I disagree with her entirely, she needs to have the microphone more, not less.

Alice knows she would have next to no voice in Islamic nations so sees a need to criticize the parts of the world that has given her free speech. freedom to critcize and freedom to spread her dogmas about the US. How about telling us what good things the US has done for you instead of venting your bias. Before you can build bridges which she advocates I suggest a balanced view of history be presented. Without that we just get another left wing set of worn out dogmas.

Cue the US apologists...
If Iran is a messed up theocracy it is mainly because the US made it that way. Funny how nations with oil supplies are "threats" while poor countries with tyrants are potential allies, or ignored altogether.
And selling drugs to finance wars is OK is it?
And global kidnap and torture is OK too is it?
It's all very well to blame the "primitive" cultures, but you miss the author's point: The US policy of lawlessness through illegal terror empowers extremism at the expense of balanced discourse. After a few family deaths due to state murder I guarantee you too would "get primitive" and embrace violence.
I have no love for extreme Muslim views, but I see them as no worse than extreme Christian or even extreme Buddhist views.
The point is that bombing anyone back to the stone age will bring the extremists out, mainly because civilisation fails utterly under the circumstances that the US has deliberately created as a matter of military and economic policy.
Say the US was regularly bombed, and suspicion was pointed at Muslims. Can you honestly say that Christians in the US wouldn't resort to uber-violence? (KKK manages it without provocation.)
Treating people like animals, then saying they deserve it because they react badly is an old school-yard tactic...sadly folks believe the US spin that "they envy our way of life" or their culture is inherently evil rather than admit that they too would get angry if they were treated with such injustice by such a hypocritical bully state. The fact that Australia supports the US and Israel without qualification is a disgrace.

Alice Aslan is the author of "ISLAMOPHOBIA IN AUSTRALIA"

See: http://www.islamophobia.com.au/

The introductory blurb says:

"Islamophobia is a contemporary form of racism against Muslims…"

Sigh.

Another attempt to conflate racism with dislike, even loathing, for a belief system.

Are some attacks on Islam motivated by racism?

Yes.

Just as some attacks on Israel are motivated by hatred for Jews.

Does that mean that either Islam or Israel should be protected from critique, analysis, satire and scorn?

MESSAGE TO ALICE.

In a democracy ANY belief system, ANY ideology, including but not restricted to agnosticism, atheism, Buddhism, capitalism, Christianity, Fascism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Marxism, Nazism, scientology, socialism, Zionism and Zoroastrianism is a LEGITIMATE target for critique, analysis, satire and SCORN.

The critic is under no compulsion to consider the feelings of the true believers or to play by imposed rules of "fairness" and "balance." (Usually such rules are designed to be the opposite of fair and balanced)

Labelling a belief system or ideology a "religion" does not confer any special protection.

There is no such thing as a race of Muslims anymore that there is a race of Christians or Liberal party supporters; therefore a loathing for Islam is NOT "racism" in any shape, manner or form.

In Australia nobody is compelled to be a Muslim or to follow any other religion. Adults are free to choose their religious beliefs. You choose to be a Muslim in the same sense that you choose to vote for a particular political party.

Deal with it and stop trying to peddle the idea of a loathing for Islam as "racism".

A loathing for Islam is not "racism."

Unfortunately the happiness of fifty or sixty years living in peace with one's neighbours weighs up very poorly against the eternity of torture in hell which will inevitably result from it after death. Once again, the culprit is irrational beliefs, and specifically religious beliefs; and only when these become as attenuated in the Middle East as they are in most of the West can we expect the nations there to attain the same degree of long-term peace.