I'm starting to think Banjo and co belong to some cult who spam forums. Three days after the article is published, Banjo decides to count how many times the authors use the term "islamophobia" --- rather than engage with an argument, Banjo counts. Why?

What irony too, the authors point was about the "excessiveness" of the Muslim

I guess Banko can't use your ten fingers to read, or calculate political meaning, so counting will have to do, and lucky for you Banjo the authors didn't use Islamophobia 11 times otherwise you might have to take off your socks for further aid

Anyway:

Banjo wrote: "The word 'Islamophobia' is used 10 times in the article. It is the sole reason put forward as to why Islam is so dissliked (sic)."

& Banjo also wrote: "posters use islamophobia often and 'racist' as well, without explaining how critisism (sic) of a religion can be racist"

Here are some examples of the author's explanations:

1 “Islamophobia relies on a constant accusation and a permanent denial that assumes guilt.”

2 “Islamophobia’s logic ... assumes a particular narrative of history, fixes the Muslim in pejorative terms, and imposes a parochial reading of terrorism.”

3 “Islamophobia is a symptom of the increased visibility of Muslims ... this visible difference as a sign of their unwillingness to integrate”

4 "bin Laden should be understood as a figure who is dressed up in these phobias, who has been used as a quintessential point of reference to interrogate Islam."

There exits the OVER visibility of the Muslim in all political discussions. Racism has moved from biology to culture, the dominating feature is that white people remain the norm from which we judge others.

It makes sense to me because I'm Muslim. I get it. I also read books. You lot should try the latter before you condemn the former.

anyway you mental midgets can't even spell, and think Lebanon and Libya is the same country, so I doubt you'll understand a word.

Al Qaeda was invention of the CIA.Bin laden has been dead since late 2001.Benazhir Bhutto and many others have said this.The war on terror is a sham.Only Westerners who are glued to the idiot box believe in this BS.

To "Ammonite" and "Neutral"

Religious topics are very popular on OLO and they are always very well represented with replies. If you don't like this situation, then instead of complaining about it, just go and post somewhere else.

Perhaps some innocuous chat room would be more to your taste? Whatever, its a free country, and there is the door.

To Zack.

Yup, I am one of those "racist morons" who does believe that Muslims are ethnically cleansing "their" areas of Sydney. How do I know?
Personell experience is one way, and the first hand accounts from friends who have had similar experiences to myself is another. Another is the fact that Muslim areas of Sydney are becoming monocultural Muslim ghettoes due enirely to the hostility being directed towards non Muslims who are still forced to reside in these dangerous and violence ridden Muslim areas.

Once I was simply walking down Parramatta Road in Sydney, looking for a particular street number. For some reason, commercial and industrial sites never bother to display their street numbers. So it was necessary for me to to park in a side street, then walk down Parramatta Road counting off the numbers of the few places who bothered to display them, in order to find the place I was looking for.

Without warning, a carload of young male Arabs pulled up beside me, wound down their windows, and started screaming abuse at me. And no, Zack, that has never happened to me with any other ethnic or religious group. I could also recount that I have only once in my entire life had to face a confrontation with persons armed with weapons, and you guessed it, they were Lebanese.

I had to laugh when a friends daughter, the product of an elite school, berated me one day on my "racism". The girl had a boyfriend from a public school and she insisted that she be allowed to attend the same school as her boyfriend. Unfortunately for her, the school had Lebanese students. While at school one day, SOMETHING HAPPENED, she came home in tears, and now she is even more racist than I am.

Her mother was another liberal. But her eldest daughter got her drink spiked by a bunch of Arabs in a city nightclub. Her girlfriends prevented them from carrying her off, and now simply mentioning the word "Lebanese" in front of the formerly liberal mother gets her frothing at the mouth.

Obviously, Lego blocks don't build a brain. So, Islam is to blame
for the Lebanese guy who goes clubbing and spikes his girlfriend's drink? That must be Islam's hidden pillar. Or maybe it's Australia's? "Thy shall get smashed on thy weekend, and thy shall fornicate in a club or else thy shall be a loser"

Why is it when an Australian of Middle Eastern origin commits a crime his/her religion becomes relevant ie. Islam, but when a white Australian commits a crime his religion is rarely mentioned.

It would be better to judge individuals by their actions than make broader generalisations about race or religion.

However that said, it is disingenuous to speak about 'Islamophobia' without understanding the concerns people might have about Islam.

While most Muslims in Australia are moderate and live by the peaceful tenets of Islam, there are some who do publicly engage in harmful rhetoric as was the case in the UK when some Imams were agitating young Muslims to commit acts of terrorism. There is a group within the UK who commonly use the phrase "you are either a Muslim or not a Muslim" ie. anyone who is not a Muslim is somehow lesser and can be treated as such. It is happening, there are many examples. The Christians don't get a free pass either if a particular Church has been exposed as fostering evil such as the handling of child abuse cases in the Catholic Church. I don't care what the religion is as long as the tenets and behaviours are sound.

There is a perception that Muslims in the community are not denouncing those who do not live by the tenets of peace or those who have put their own interpretations on the Koran to fit with a political agenda.

It is also disingenuous to posit that culture and religion are not sometimes inexorabley linked and manifestations of that can be observed in the treatment of women in some Middle Eastern countries. In a recent 4Corners Report a young Muslim rebel being taught in a Madrassa in remote Afghanistan stated that if women are allowed outside the home then they also deserve to be killed. This is the sort of brainwashing that many people are concerned about. It is foolish to ignore those fears and concerns.

To be cont...