Agreed, very informative article, John Perkins. Unfortunately not many people will read Aliy's article in the Age, or Paul Monk's refutation.

Aly's article was a revelation. Perhaps out of frustration, he resorted to the standard Muslim whine and Kuffar blaming, the appalling state of majority Muslim societies never seems to be the a product of the toxic ideology of Islam itself. Given the average person's monumental ignorance of Islamic history, the Muslim-as-eternal-victim ploy will probably be effective.

As usual Monk fishes about for the usual stuff that divides Muslims and christians.

If waleed comes across sounding like an Islamist? It's because he is one! We can all have four bob's worth when it comes to mostly ignorant opinion.

Look, we have had muslims of the Sofie tradition (the least altered or revised of all the muslim traditions) in the country since before the Ghan!

And today you'd be very had pressed to distinguish them from any other typical footy and cricket loving, beer drinking and barbeque munching Aussie.

If Abbott knew anything about Islam he would know it has its share of progressives and a cadre who recognize that Mohammad was apparently an illiterate, who relied on others to put his words down on paper, and not always, it would seem, verbatim?

I've had my fill of a pulpit pounding Abbott telling others how to be moral, when he seemed to have had difficulty with the truth and keeping his promises?

Or allowing others to do as their own conscience dictates, or being bound by the expressed will of the electorate?

I believe there is movement inside Islam toward reform; and it is not helped by know eerything, activists and the usual critics of everything Islam.

And just when there seemed we were getting a significant portion of muslims inside and seeing themselves as Aussies even more threatened by the ideology of ISIS than almost anyone else?

We get nowhere fast by simply and simplistically focusing on those very few areas that apparently still divide us!

There is just one creator and we all of us who believe, pay homage according to our lights!

There is not a christian or muslim way, just a right way, and that way is guided in each individual by their own conscience!

There are many paths ; even so , they all lead invariably to the same destination!

All learning is accomplished during the journey and not by fortuitously arriving at the destination.
Rhrosty.

The Koran is a bad dialogue for video-game gun-fights and demonstrates its weakness by ordering the killing of humans who defect from Islam. Suitable for mature adults , contains extreme violence.
However,,
2 people died from Islamic terror ( or 1 died from a police bullet):
1 death.
How many dead from Christian massacres of the first Australians, anti-Chinese murders , bikie bashings , crim gang wars, home murders and so on forever and ever.

'There is not a christian or muslim way, just a right way, and that way is guided in each individual by their own conscience!'

you really don't know how dumb that statement is Rhrosty.

Let's see Runner, according to your faith there is a:

God whom sent down ten things we must all follow, on some stone tablets no less,

These being, thou shalt not kill....blah blah blah.

Then God says "if you do not follow these instructions i (God) will send you to hell, where you will be damned forever, roasting in the fire for all eternity...blah, blah blah".

Then he has the audacity to say, "But I love you" come on, give us a break.

I'll take Rhrostys way over yours Runner, everyday.

What a joke!

actually Geoff as usual you twist things to suite your own dogma. The commandments were given in order to show how utterly corrupt mankind is. He is incapable of keeping them. You are a good example of this. People won;t go to hell for not keeping the commandments. They choose to reject the mercy shown to them through Jesus Christ. People choose to be separate from the author of love, peace, kindness and patience and rather than receive forgiveness and then rant on as if they don't need to be forgiven. Its called self righteousness Geoff and thats exactly the doctrine that Rhrosty is espousing. Some peoples concsciences allow them to fiddle with kids, behead people, kill the unborn etc.The way of Christ is infinetly superior but then again you need to lay aside your self righteousness to accept that.