stevedziedzic, I would like to see the text of the verses from the Quran which they read out published in the Press and on this site. Are you game? Is Waleed Aly game? Is anyone in the Muslim camp game? I hope asking these questions won't bring the Religious and Racial Police to my door.

Andrew Bolt had a very good article in the 'Herald Sun' called 'Playing with Fire' (22/12/04)
http://heraldsun.news.com.au/sectionindex1/0,5442,dhs_andrewbolt^TEXT^heraldsun,00.html
It's definitely worth a read.

Challenge accepted, Big Al. I looked up the transcripts of the case.

What did the good pastor actually say? I’ve taken just two verbatim snippets out of his tirade, and believe me, they’re representative. If anyone else can swallow their disgust for long enough they are more than welcome to doublecheck the sermon on the VCAT website. There’s a link to this case on its homepage.

“The truth will set you free, but Muslim people, when they come to some teaching they don’t like (in the Koran)- people, you know they will not tell the truth. They will not tell the truth, they will hide the truth. They will tell lies.”
(40 10a)

[The Koran says that] if you don’t become a Muslim you’re head should be chopped off… so that’s Islam. OK. So this is, we need to be aware that Muslims have not forgotten the definition. They know what it means, but they will not tell you what it means, unless appropriate time.”
(40 10e)

This is not just “quoting the Koran.” This is baseless and vicious misrepresentation and incitement to hatred. If someone accused all Christians of a homogenous and violent fundamentalism there would be uproar. If a Muslim speaker said that Christians had a collective inability to read the Bible faithfully and had ominous plans to hide their faith’s inherent violence until the “appropriate time” there would (rightly) be bedlam.

The decision should stand.

When Oliver Cromwell took over England in 1645, Christmas was cancelled as part of a Puritan effort to rid the country of decadence. This proved unpopular, and when Charles II was restored to the throne, he restored the celebration. The Pilgrims, a group of Puritanical English separatists who came to North America in 1620, also disapproved of Christmas, and as a result it was not a holiday in early America. The celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed from 1659 to 1681 in Boston, a prohibition enforced with a fine of five shillings. The people of the Jamestown settlement, on the other hand, celebrated the occasion freely. Christmas fell out of favor again after the American Revolution, as it was considered an "English custom", and it was not declared a federal holiday in the United States until June 26, 1870. (Wikipedia).

STEVEDZIEDZIC you say you have accepted my chllenge, but you didn't deliver. What I wnat to see is the EXACT TEXTS OF THE VERSES IN THE QURAN AND OTHER LITERATURE WHICH WERE READ OUT. WHAT WAS IN THEM TO CAUSE ALL THIS TROUBLE? THIS IS THE STARTING POINT. UNLESS WE KNOW THIS INFORMATION, WE CAN'T REALLY GIVE AN INFORMATIVE OPINION ON THE DETAILS OF THIS CASE. We can argue on the principles of Free Speech, but we can't get into the heart of this matter unless we have the above information. WHY CAN'T WE GET IT? ARE THE AUTHORITIES TOO SCARED?

Big Al, it is not a breach of the constitutional right of free speech to quote sections of the Koran for the purposes of information, research, study and discussion, but it is a crime against the relevant legislation to misrepresent such quotations for the purposes of racial vilification. GET THE DIFFERENCE?

Look it up on the internet yourself, most of interested enough have already done so. There is no conspiracy to keep you in the dark, Big Al, just turn the lights on.