BD,
"..if I invited u to my place, and we had roast beef.. would you eat it ? :) "

Has nothing to do with bridging a gap and having dialogue. It is a cynical and poor swipe at someone else’s beliefs. Plain and simple.

I’m not going to waste my time with you any longer. Slip and slide along, greasing whatever road you wish with your, how did you phrase it? Narrow mode of thinking. Talk about the proverbial pot!

Maybe one day you will see the damage you do. Then again, probably not.

Ben,

if you are interested I suggest you take a look at some of the following texts:

Racism, ethnicity and the media / edited by Andrew Jakubowicz ; written by Heather Goodall ... [et al.] St Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 1994.

Kebabs, kids, cops and crime : youth, ethnicity and crime / by Jock Collins ... [et al.]. Annandale, N.S.W. : Pluto Press, 2000.

Bin Laden in the suburbs : criminalising the Arab other / Scott Poynting ... [et al.]. Sydney, N.S.W. : Sydney Institute of Criminology, 2004.

Against paranoid nationalism : searching for hope in a shrinking society / Ghassan Hage. Annandale, Vic. : Pluto Press, 2003.

Perception is a funny thing Ben, reality is another

Alchemist,

1. Muslim owned businesses: when it happens its tribalism, if you follow my thread on Egypt, the same is happening among Christians who employ and buy only from Christians. It should have stayed there.
2. 80-90% unemployment: first I would question the 80-90% figure but this is complex issue of diassimilation, and mismanaged multiculturalism on one hand. On the other, there is across the board discrimination in the employment market in Australia.
3. Women & Hijab: some cases of wearing hijab is forced by family but most cases I have seen are women who chose to wear. Most females in my immediate and extended family chose to. I respect their choices either way and it does not make them a better or lesser muslims. The description of Hijab for a person (man or woman) should not wear anything that is too revealing or too transparent. Some women feel safer with the literal translation and chose the head cover as well. Burqa is no related to religion at all.
4. Agree with unhealthy practices but yet again this is something that time and mutual acceptance can resolve. Islam is fairly new to Europe and is escorted by fear given the very nature of Christian heritage of the West and its painting of Islam as the competitive ‘other’. There is a room for a vision, modernisation and integration plans. In fact, it started few years ago with modern interpretation of the meanings of the Quoran but it will take a decade or two to transpire through the whole community.
5. Not sure about vitamins deficit when women cover up or skin cancer when they don’t, it is a personal choice issue. Can’t comment further on this one.
6. Muslims women don’t talk to men: this statement confirms to me that you don’t know any muslim women. They work with other men, they ask for directions in the street. Islam is based on intent of conversing and does not differentiate between a man or a woman.
7. We don’t have more inner struggle, just more media attention.

Fellow human, you approach questions the same way as your religious opposites.

My post stated, “Why are muslim women not allowed to talk to men when they are covered, “. It did not refer to all muslim women on the whole. I was asking about covered women, you avoided it.

Time and mutual acceptance within religion, history shows us the true reality. Religion is for the under evolved, who can't yet grasp the reality of life. They appear to need some form of illusion to give them a reason for life. Without religion you people would have no purpose. Note the daily violence, religious beliefs thrust upon this fragile planet and it inhabitants

Provide one scrap of reality to support your fallacies. Violence and destruction is the only evidence religion can provide. Nothing that would show your beliefs in a positive, acceptable and progressive light.

You all talk up the greatness and goodness of your beliefs, but you all run like hell, when you have to prove that what you believe has been anything but violent, destructive and down right disgusting expressions in its treatment of life here.

All religions refuse to accept the historical facts of what they have done on this planet.

The mantra of all religions of the world. Breed, conquer, destroy. Not fallacy, but fact after fact. Look at every place in the world, that is controlled or being infiltrated by religion and you will see the consequences

You failed to answer why the religious of the world, spend their time killing, if not others then themselves. A very good example of the reality of the destructive myths that you all follow.

I for one, certainly will sit up an listen, if you can explain these realities and not just bury yourselves in deranged wrath.

How religion has interacted on this planet throughout history is all the proof necessary to explain, describe and understand what it is about. As you represent your god, and are in the image of your god, so you all have succeeded in reflecting what your god represents