>>The second posits that if Australians were more knowledgeable about Muslims they would express more favorable opinions of Muslims AND Islam.>>

(My capitalisation)

Would they?

About both?

That's an interesting proposition.

I think the best course of action by "Muslims" Australians is to throw off their Iron age religion and join the computer age humanist and Atheist. People shouldn't be defined by silly beliefs like christ-stainity or Is-lame. If you want to keep you culture alive and locked into the country you came from you should stay there.
What good parts of these new cultures and religions thought should we integrate, what should we reject?

Australia should be about creating a new and great culture not bounded by the dogmatic ideas of cultures and religions well past their used by date.

<<The second posits that if Australians were more knowledgeable about Muslims they would express more favorable opinions of Muslims AND Islam.>>

Aaaah! Mr Ata must be thinking of one of those "education" programs where people are spoon fed the good bits, like you'd see on The Islam Channel, or Saudi TV--or SBS.

Some of our OLO posters have already been through such training. You can pick 'em because they are the ones always spouting cliches about the glories of Mooorish Spain, or telling everyone they don't know (and don't want to know) of any holocausts under/by Islam.

“Australia has an outstanding record, perhaps beyond any other multicultural society, in displaying tolerance and in accommodating an incredibly diverse population.”

Is that really true? Or does it just seem that way because, after multiculturalism (nothing to do with religion) was forced on us without debate, and the importation of people totally alien to our culture, the political class, their elitist advisers, and immigrant activists have seen to it that anything thing they regard as intolerant will be punished by law. Only if you are white, Anglo/Saxon/Celt/European, of course. It is OK for the alien cultures among us to be totally intolerant of us and our ways.

This article, about Muslims, is totally alien to our culture for starters. We don’t talk about religion; that’s a private matter. But Abe Ata gets straight into “differences between Christian and Muslim communities”. We all know that there are Muslim communities, but no Australia thinks in terms of Christian communities. Christianity is a religion adhered to by relatively few Australians. Islam is not really a religion, but a total way of life which is totally averse to Australian culture. Islam has always been, and always will be, on the outer of any Western countries where it has been allowed (foolishly) to get a foot hold; and nobody knows what the 2% in Australia will grow to, and what effect it will have on Western culture, given our cowardly politicians who caused this very iffy situation.

Abe Ata’s article, Muslims vs Christians, shows that he doesn’t know the first thing about us. Where an Australian dialogue would be about PEOPLE – from diverse cultures, and how we accept them or not, Muslims want to talk about RELIGION, something that is barely given any heed in Australia, and which is no answer to the dangers of Islam.

Abe Ata’s belief in Australian tolerance (he says nothing about Muslim-inspired intolerance of everyone and everything) is naïve. He is confusing tolerance with the authoritarian crushing of free speech by our nasty political class who have adopted a divide and rule doctrine to replace democracy and freedom.

And will this "newly emerging Australian identity" include sharia law?

Australia's multiculturalism has largely kept apace with it's increasing rejection of religion. Over the last few decades more and more Aussie's (now a majority) have professed to “no religious affiliation”. Certainly I was forced to Sunday School every week as a child, but my own children were not.
This is the “emerging new Australian identity” I want to see; a rational rejection of superstition -and the discrimination that so commonly occurs between competing superstitions.
It is -probably, ironically- our very lack of religion which has made us so tolerant.
I sincerely hope 2nd generation Muslims join this emerging new Australian identity...
and stop being Muslims.