Joe

‘... seems to contain a slight contradiction: are you saying that 'violent Islam' is a myth ? Or are you saying that there are plenty of reasons for 'violent Islam' ?’

I’m saying NEITHER. So it seems you’ve found a contradiction between two things I didn’t say.

And thank you for the LOOOONG dissertation on Evil Serbia For Dummies. So many new Hitlers to discover; so little time.

Oi tink Killarney is talkin' blarney, Loudy.

A group of people sharing an anger over wars and injustice, a sense of identity and purpose, and a want to be a heroes, try to recreate the Ottoman empire, and we should be sympathetic?

Jihad is eternal, it doesn't stop at enough, and an Ottoman empire is something we should accommodate rather than oppose? Was the Ottoman empire accomodating? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide
No, it was not. It had to be opposed.

As for, ".....and, most of all, simply being young and male", most of all? How should this be respected, do you propose, Killarney, voluntary re-education camps? BTW, lots of females have joined the fray.

All we can do to accommodate Muslims is offer a place within western society as first class citizens. If we're failing at that, explain how we can do better. However, don't be so usefully idiotic as to say Islam has nothing to do with this.

Luciferese

'However, don't be so usefully idiotic as to say Islam has nothing to do with this.'

Only IF that was what I said ... which it wasn't.

'BTW, lots of females have joined the fray.'

Define 'lots'.

It's well documented that the overwhelming majority of terrorists (like about 99%) are young and male. If the converse existed - i.e. if the vast majority of terrorists were young and female - the gender factor would be central to all discussions of terrorism. However, we're so conditioned to accepting male terrorists as 'the norm', that masculinity is almost never given consideration as a contributing factor.

Trying to get this.

So, 'violent Islam' 'is' a part of it? It's just that those that focus on it alone are useful idiots?

Wouldn't that equally apply to those who reject the violent Islam 'paradigm' and focus only on young males, justice, identity etc. as 'the' causes?

How do you feel about a new Ottoman Empire/Caliphate? Should it be accommodated peacefully, perhaps by a consensual dissolving of ME borders to get it started? I'm at a loss to see how force is avoidable however it goes.

Re how many females, I'm not disagreeing about the proportion that go to Syria, but who knows the proportion when it comes to sympathy for the cause? Do you?

What positive discrimination should be afforded Australian Muslims to win more over to our peaceful citizenship offering? I'm not talking something radical, like Sharia enclaves, just things to bring them more into the mainstream, youth particularly.

Killarney, thanks for your kind words earlier, I enjoy reading your thoughts too. It's not always obvious that people are reading what we write here, especially since it's often the case that responses are driven by the desire for an argument rather than anything constructive.

On your comment about young males, it's a reality that this has always been the demographic which is sent to fight the community's battles and which often actively seeks out a chance to do so. The eagerness of our own country's young men to go off and fight at Gallipoli and the number who lied about their age in order to do so, both in WW1 and WW2 shows that this is not a Muslim phenomenon, but a human one.

So, since we're all humans, we should be able to understand what drives these young men in a more fundamental way than simply falling back on the silliness of the religious explanation. Once we understand what's driving them, we should be able to work out how to change the conditions that create those drives.

However, we have to accept that just as the current situation didn't just suddenly pop into existence overnight - the current young men who seek death and glory are following in the footsteps of a long line of similar young men - it is going to take a long time to create a new situation where such expectations are not normalised.

Short termism and expedience are the enemies of good policy, but it takes courage to face short term negative consequences while waiting for long term positive changes.

Craig,
It's not correct to say "all Muslims" and terrorism is a minor threat, it is however true that the Arab diaspora is basically just a constellation of tribes consisting of organised crime clans and street gangs
The Arab street gangs are the school for Jihadis, ISIL is the biggest gang of all and what's happening in Europe is that the returning fighters are now the big men on the block, they're idolised by the young kids coming up.
The Lebanese in Australia have no peers when it comes to organised crime, people like Carl Williams, the Perricks and the Morans were the last of the old school White crims, the symbiosis of radical Islam and organised crime goes back to Mohammed and his days raiding caravans.