Quote: The attacks on multiculturalism and the veiled racism and xenophobia of Coalition immigration policy since 1996 have done incalculable damage to Australia’s social fabric and body politic. For those committed to a progressive, tolerant and open society, recent events offer an opportunity to take a stand…

And what about the damage to Australia’s social fabric caused by people that don’t accept our values and/or who promote intolerance? Well, maybe freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equality and separation of state are not your values because you obviously believe that some people don’t have a right to an opinion, and, of course, any disagreement with you automatically constitutes racism by people who are obvious spawn of the devil himself.

I looked at your link…
http://newmatilda.com/2011/02/23/can-multiculturalism-work-for-labor

It is basically an article about how ethnic politics can be played for political gain. I really liked that part in the article that says that a statement that "Islam is a totalitarian, political and religious ideology" is “religious vilification.” Perhaps then someone should look at the thousands of Islamic websites that tell us that “Islam is a complete system of life,” encompassing all moral, spiritual, legal and political aspects of human life. Is that, too, religious vilification? Oh yes, excuse me, since it is Muslims we must not apply the same standards we expect of others, right? Note also, the idea that “Multiculturalism has failed” is not exactly limited to Australia. Have you followed international news these last few weeks? Can you figure out what these people in other countries are talking about?

The only people trying to take away freedoms are the people like Thampapilli and Lexi, who believe that people have no right to express opinions about their values or about issues that affect their lives, and if people do have an opinion they don't like, it can only be the the product of ignorance and racism

Multiculturalism ... the Poem

I wanna be a Politician,
Wanna tread the floor
Get my bum licked by immigrants
Who turn nasty once they're out my door
But I don't have to live next door
So vacillating Aussy electors bear that chore
From where I sit migrants take the cake
They appreciate us politicians
push dead-wood Australians out the gate
and build a multicultured Nation
Where i'm Obama's bestest mate

Now all I have to do is sell
All the dirty portfolios from hell
To teflon CEO's
wrapped in Commercial-In-Confidence throes
They get paid thrity times as much as I
to tell the Public all my lies
While I nation build
My family dynasty I gild
And Australia becomes my
Dream come true
At the expense of you ... and you and YOU

Multiculturalism is viable except for groups that practise separatism. They are the orthodox Jews, classical Islam and extremist whites (white supremist).

The orthodox Jews are not a problem because they are small in number.

White extremists are groups like the old South Africa, the whites of the USA before the 1960s, Nazis, the small pockets of whites with British-colonial-mentality found mainly in the English-speaking Anglo Saxon countries.

Islamists are those who practice classical Islam with the lot of shariah law and all. Over the centuries Islamists have killed millions and millions of people. Only slightly less than the atheists dictators (Mao, Stalin, Polpot, etc)

Currently we are seeing a devout Islamists, Col. Gaddafi killing Muslims. The irony is that those shot at by Gaddafi also believe that Islam is going to free them from their situation.

Enlightened Muslims are those who have left Islam.

Islamists are the Muslims who have an Islamic worldview. They fail to see that Islamic countries are generally failed states (except those with oil).

Islamists are advised to look carefully into the history of Pakistan, a modern experiment of Muslims trying to establish an Islamic country based shariah law.

http://www.islam-watch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=662:return-to-roots-liberate-from-the-shackles-of-arab-religious-imperialism-part-1&catid=73:brahmachari&Itemid=58

kactuz:

I am really puzzled by your lack of comprehension skills. Kindly don't put words into my mouth and attribute things to me that I have not said. Re-read my posts and do try to understand what it is that I am actually trying to say. Our political conversation must shift away from the infantile finger-pointing that now pervades it. Nobody is trying to take away any of your rights, and certainly not your right to disagree. The point that is being made is that the right of free speech and a free press does not include the right to incite racial violence, to demonize or to denigrate a religion or a people.
If you don't understand that, then you really do have some serious problems. Perhaps your education could benefit from going to your local library and taking out the book, "Muslims in Australia," written by Dr Saed. It certainly couldn't hurt.

KAEP:

Thank You for your attempt at poetry - however, I prefer the following
poem written by Brenda Krenus, Form 3, Richmond High, Victoria:

"If my skin was coloured
And yours was starkly white,
Would you start putting me down
Till I'd have to turn and fight?

If I prayed to a god
And it was different to yours,
Would you reason it out
As a good cause for war?

If I lay here starving
And you were suffering too,
Would you try to kill me
So there'd be more food for you?

If the world was dead
And you were at war,
Would you bring it back to life
So men could fight some more?

If man got together
And made the world clean,
Would you bring back pollution
And ruin another dream?

If the world looked like staying
In the state it is today,
Would you try to help it out
Or just let it rot away?

If men are truly brothers
Though we can't live in peace,
Should we obey the rules and fight
Or try to make the fighting cease?"

To Lexi re:

>>If I prayed to a god
And it was different to yours,
Would you reason it out
As a good cause for war?>>

The answer has often been "yes".

Ask any Ahamdya, Shia or Christian in Pakistan.

Ask any Copt in Egypt.

Ask any citizen of Lebanon

The first verse could just as well have been written:

"If my skin was starkly black
And yours was brown,
Would you start putting me down
Till I'd have to turn and fight?"

Ask any Asian refugee from Uganda.

Contrary to popular opinion in some circles, people with white skins did not invent racism nor are they the only practitioners thereof.

What is more skin colour is often irrelevant to bigots. Ask any survivor of a Nazi death camp.