Thanks David-VK3AUU

For your comments. There may be generational differences between the older Imams (who met Brandis) with young men perhaps considering them old fogies - not a good situation. Activists in their 30s who make themselves out as religious leaders could be the main problem. Do you think withholding passports to prevent young men leaving Australia would be any solution?
--

Hi Teena

Yes terrorism problems in UK and Europe have been worse than here - with closer proximity of Europe to the Middle East-Somalia-Iran-Pakistan being a factor.

Indonesia does seem to receive vastly too little attention on political changes and terrorism. Sally Neigbour wrote an excellent book on the Indonesian JI network (and Australian connections) in the early 2000s http://www.sallyneighbour.com/files/Austn_Defence_Assoc_Review.pdf .

Human rights and privacy concerns are indeed important as ongoing principles and essential considerations in lawmaking. A particular instance of concern for privacy in the amendments up for decision include parts of Chapter 2 of http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=pjcis/nsl2012/report.htm - a bit of a goldmine on security thinking. Chapter 2 file:///C:/Users/Peter/Downloads/http---www.aphref.aph.gov.au-house-committee-pjcis-nsl2012-report-chapter%202%20(1).PDF (pages 14 to 16) comments on the concept of proportionality of (Snowden style) electronic surveillance and privacy and makes a Recommendation.
--

Hi Arjay

9/11, the Bali Bombings, the Madrid Bombings and London 7/7 Bombings together represented thousands of Westerners dead and cost tens of $Billions in economic damage. Would you call that a lie?

What some now forgotten Cold Warrior like Zibigniew Brezezinski wrote doesn't refute those bombings. Brezezinski was a contemporary of Henry Kissinger. Would you trust Kissinger on anything?

If you want a fresh new conspiracy theory forget 911 "Truth". Read "Bin Laden's imprisonment from 2005" at http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=15855 . The latter is so plausible that certain people who call the shots get touchy when I write too many 2010 self-generated liaison details about it. Years after Obama leaves office this bin Laden theory (yes bin Laden was killed on 2 May 2011) will become respectable.

Cheers

Pete

<<We may be of many faiths but we are Australians first so shouldn't be ruled by religion.>>

So the author expects us to betray God for... some human-made idol - the state.

Not only are we not Australians first - we are not even human first.
We are but short-term visitors in this universe, in this planet and in this continent, so our loyalty should be to our true essence - to God alone!

God is not a terrorist. The kingdom of God is within each one of us, in our hearts and is enforced by bonds of love, not by weapons. Those who [ab]use the name of God for promoting terrorism are not religious - but hypocrite. They are nationalists of the worst kind, wishing their tribe to gain territory at the expense and torture of others, but faking religion as a pretext only to get what they want on earth.

Let us not be nationalists like them.

Look Peter Coates, people like you wanted multiculturalism and now you have got it. "Racists" like me did not want any part of it. We warned people like yourself that ignoring our traditional European immigration sources and bringing third worlders from violent cultures would be catastrophic for the maintenances of law and order in this country. Especially if we brought people from cultures like Islam who have traditionally been our enemies for centuries and who are not yet civilised enough to live in a western democracy.

The result has been the ethnic ghettoisation of Australia, particularly Sydney with high rates of welfare dependency and serious criminal behaviour, "white flight" and now terrorism. Welcome to multicultural Australia. You people are incredible. You create an endemic problem with your insistence on western countries embracing fairyland ideals, then you moan and groan when the entirely predicted negative results of your stupidity cause the responsible people in your society to change our laws to make them more oppressive, to ameliorate the problem that you created.

Your position is that Australia could have avoided it had we not involved ourselves in foreign wars. Australia's defence policy has always been to fight to the last American, and our defence spending has never been lower. As a proportion of GDP we are spending less now than in the Great Depression. Therefore, we have alliances with countries who are not as cheap or as stupid as we are. In 1939, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Poland and Czechoslovakia were neutral and where did that get them? They are not stupid anymore. They are NATO and they support their allies when attacked.

One reason why so many people are allies of the USA is because the yanks are the world's policeman, and they make great friends and bad enemies. Nobody ever thought that anyone would be stupid enough to attack the USA, but the Muslims don't think like intelligent races. The USA's allies honoured their commitments and if the Muslims want to fight us, they can take the lot of us on and we are going to beat them

Plantagenet, The London 7/7 Bombings had many question marks over them. A senior Indonesian politician said about the Bali Bombings, the first bomb was ours but the really big one was not.

They are called false flag events and at least 50 have been documented in our history eg the Hilters Reichstag fire he blamed on the communists, the Lusitania, the Gulf on Tonkin, Israel's attack on the USS Liberty 1967 etc.

Agree with most of your as usual pragmatism Pete. [You should be running the country!] But add, if power corrupts then absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We, who may be subject to endless new laws and new powers self conferred by power hungry, narcissistic ministers, and all in the name of deterring home grown terrorism.
Need a bill of irrevocable rights, if only to ensure, if any responsible minister oversteps his or her authority, there will be a means to remediation and possible damages?
By the way, just heard that the collective noun for a group of baboons is a parliament?
The very last time I looked at question time, I wondered, how on earth could anyone make that startling comparison!?
Rhrosty.

Hi Yuyutsu

My take on all this is - its how people interpret what they think God is telling them that is a problem or a solution. Within all faiths there are contradictions and disagreements on what the Word is.

Any justification of aggression in the name of a God or religion is wrong. In contrast all people are - or should be - equal under secular law. Secular law is legitimate and supported by democracy.

I agree that nationalism can also be made evil depending on what interpretations are manufactured or accepted.

The main thing is what we have in common in Australia – in pursuit of understanding and feelings of unity.

Regards

Pete