Alchemist,
I don't know if you meant it to be sound this funny, but it had me in a fit of giggles about your comment PCs not being able to assimilate. Have we all gone mad over this topic or what?:

"You must understand that it is the PC's of this world that are now in control and they are as much an evil ism as is religion and they can't assimilate either. "

To all the Trolls, moral-equivalency merchants, obfuscation-artists, leftists, ideologues, nihilists, guessers, wishers, grievance-mongers and Inshallah-fatalists out there festering in cyber-space:
Enough already, with the phoney race-card. ISLAM IS NOT A RACE! It's a (would-be) world-conquering totalitarian ideology disguised as a religion.
Buddhists, Atheists, Christians, Jews, Hindus etc don't have a jihad and global dominance motif running through their core tenets.
If you must comment on this subject, at least have the decency to study Dhimmitude, the Qur'an-Hadith-Sira-fueled hostility towards non-Muslims, the 1350 year old history of jihad ideology and Sharia jurisprudence - the domain of Islamic law, which codifies female inferiority and religious inequality.
Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to Marwan Abu Ubeida have consistently made clear that today’s jihadists are working from mainstream traditions and numerous Qur’anic exhortations, and that by means of these traditions and teachings they are able to gain recruits among Muslims worldwide — as well as to hold the sympathy of others whom they do not recruit. This explains why there has been no widespread, sustained, and sincere Muslim outcry against the jihad terrorist enterprise in general.
The jihad ideology is rooted in the Qur’an and Islamic tradition. The longer we postpone confronting that fact, the worse the problem will grow.
The level of denial of the 800 pound gorilla in the lounge-room never ceases to amaze me.
Don't allow the survival strategies of realpolitik to be traded in for the pipe dreams of pretendpolitik.
There are altogether too many Western liberals around prepared to pay obeisance to such repulsive and authoritarian instincts while wrapping themselves in the mantle of righteousness.
So, all you apologists, deniers, guessers and wishers out there: WAKE UP!

On the subject of the hijab, Trinity was correct when she said that muslim women can choose to wear it or not. I have muslim friends, some who do wear it and some who don't. It is not compulsory in Australia. Can't say I like it very much, but I like my friends and respect their right to wear it - they don't give me a hard time about my nose and belly studs - each to their own.

I would also like to add that my friends who do wear the hijab say that it is about their relationship with god and nothing to do with men that they choose to don the head-dress, personally this just adds to my general disdain for religion in general, but hey, freedom of expression - OK?

Gosh Minuet, didn't think it was so obvious, I was giggling to. But there is always a little truth in humour.

Historically all those that want to conquer, always give the impression that they don't and won't. Sadly those with naive influence, accept those lies.

The wearing of religious clothing in public, is a statement of intent. Religious culture of all kinds, refuse to assimilate. That always makes them a problem. Just about everyone you meet in the world is nice, when it comes to their religion they quickly change, if you differ.

An answer is to not allow any religious expression in public. That won't happen, so we will just have to get ready for the crunch.

We are not immune to the problems of the world, distance is no longer a factor. We are a society that has been disarmed, mentally and physically into believing that it won't be like it is elsewhere for us. That is when reality will hit, square between the eyes.

Kalweb, “Why are Muslim women allowed to wear that black thing over their heads when they enter a bank - with only their eyes in view - when Aussie bike riders have to remove their helmets?”

Answer, the blind stupidity of the politically correct.

Xena, “my friends who do wear the hijab say that it is about their relationship with god and nothing to do with men “.

It is their relationship with their god that is the problem, not them.

As a women, you have no problem. But think about us men and the problem we have trying to understand what they want when they enter a business and there is no women to serve them.

Many men I know, find it very offensive to be ignored, have them turn their back on you, then put down their purchase and walk out because they couldn't be served by a women. Is that sanity, or just arrogant ignorance, designed to force religious culture down our throats. When it comes to their religious expression, all religions look upon those that don't believe with disdain.

The cultural significance of the hijab or a complete covering of the head is found in ancient Arabic society so that men would not covet other men's wives. It is found for instance when Leah was brought to Jacob he did not see her till the morning after the marriage and he found she wasn't Rachel as Jacob had asked of Laban [Genesis 29]. For an undrestanding of the Medo-Persian culture regarding women read the book of Esther. [see below]

Western women who have never been subject to the authority of a man would have no clue why the head covering came into existence. I grew up in an orthodox system where the wife must show her submission to her husband by covering her head when in public. I have since realised it was cultural and not authorised by God as was taught.

Xena said, "I would also like to add that my friends who do wear the hijab say that it is about their relationship with god and nothing to do with men that they choose to don the head-dress.

Esther 1:12 "But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by his chamberlains: therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him. 1:13 Then the king said to the wise men,... [the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king’s face, and which sat the first in the kingdom;] 1:15 What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains? 1:16 And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. 1:17 For knowledge of this deed of the queen shall spread unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands, when it's reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. 1:18 Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all the king’s princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen. Thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. 1:19 If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes,that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. 1:20 And when the king’s decree be published throughout all his empire, all the wives shall give to their husbands honor, both to great and small. 1:21 And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan: 1:22 For he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people."