excellent piece.

Would you like to explain why it was such an 'excellent' piece Kenny? Of course Waleed Aly is going to focus on the few examples of Western Muslim solidarity with their "fellow" countrymen, while ignoring that behind the scenes, western governments are working hard to disrupt ongoing terrorist plots.

In Melbourne and Sydney recently there has been raids on properties of Islamic extremists. France is a country virtually at war with itself, in the fight against muslims with plans to Islamify Europe. But I always ask myself, why use terrorism? Just breed, breed and breed. Have fifty kids and send them to the western countries to look after. They can grow up and have fifty kids (all muslims) and there will be an exponential increase in the power of islam. Woo hoo. Yippeee. The fall of the west, and the rise of islam. That will make our thinking class proud.

i trust we will all file davo's response in our 'nutbags' folder.

Davo's comments are as outlandish as his common language.His grammer is woeful.His reasoning subjective.
The Iraq War beleive it or not is about OIL.The muslim issue is secondary. The coallation force under the auspices of the UN come from a diverse bag of all religions. Fact three,the Wood's Affair whereby the Mufti intervened on behalf of the family was a most courageous selfish act, worthy of a military VC. He volunteered his life for Douglas Wood, even though he never knew him personally - which is more than I can say for the 20 million aussie battlers who profess to be Christians, yet watch that porno TV night-owl, xxx lewd show on Ch 10 with their prepubescent children virtually episode after episode to gain their kicks. Kidding.
The ghastly, in depth interview last Sunday night with Douglas was a sad reflection of a sociopath, suffering chronic PTSD.That Ch 10 prospered on this victim's phlight indicates the exploitation the media would sink, to gain attention and marginally win Sunday night's viewers approval. Ch 9's 60 minutes was a producer's cheapie.
Most media personnel appear to discredit the Muft's efforts, lambasting his credentials, his journey to Bhagdad, his phone messages, his experiences in downtown Felluga. What's with this mob.Is it that he's a Muslim, an Emir but also a dark-skinned dinky-die, contrary to our caucasian's perception of our stereotype, bronze whaler, obese, pot-bellied and a fottie-fan beer-swiller ! Whatever, give the man a go - he's fairdinkum, and in my books a HERO.

Kenny,
I agree it is a great article. The reason I think so is because it reminds us of our common humanity, not only via the examples of western muslims prepared to put their lives on the line for their fellow citizens, but because of the grace, warmth and humour in the tone of the article, itself.
People are people, for God's sake, whatever religion they espouse, whatever the colour of their skin, or gender. Some of them are, like Waleed Ali, intelligent, thoughtful and openminded and some of them are nutjobs.
C'est la vie.

Davo,

If you want to read 'thinking cloud' please follow some of the smart conversations on my thread with fellow Aussies of all religious beliefs. Lucky for Aussie musslims the majority in this country are beautiful people.

Whatever we have for or against Sheikh Tag, at least a 70 y.o. man went to a place that people don't go for lots of money only to attempt to rescue a fellow human being. Yep, there is always an ugly minority alright!

BTW the growth in number of musslims is not related to Arabs having more children. In fact Arab musslims are only 16% of total musslims. Not sure where have you been for the last 200 years.

Regards

Ash