kalweb >>Why are there Prayer Rooms at airports for people of Muslim faith - and none for people of Christian faith? <<

Maybe because christians haven't asked for any.

Where do you stand on John Stone's argument? Or was your intention just to stir up anti-muslim feeling?

If so, for shame. I have seen you make more compassionate and considered posts than this.

Please don't add any more fuel to the fire of hate.

There are points John makes that I find hard to refute.
At the same time I don't see how we can adopt the measures it would take to make us feel safer without becoming less than we are. What part of ourselves should we put aside to get that feeling of improved safety and how much hatred would we generate to do so?

If terror makes us more insular and less embracing of the world then terror wins.

Shutdown SBS - could it be that SBS is providing a massive service to break down some of the barriers. We don't have several hundred SBS's all broadcasting a specific language/cultural identity. We have one network slicing broadcast time up across a variety of languages and cultures. Just as I get to experience bits of other cultures watching SBS so to do those not from my culture.

Lets shift the focus of the debate from building walls to finding ways to deal with those who are a genuine risk. I doubt that is likely to be helped by working to make all Muslims feel ostracised and suspect.

R0bert

Xena and others - apologies - I posted on the wrong thread - which makes my comment inappropriate to the article. I am not stirring up anything - just asking a simple question.

We have had feedback from some of the Muslim youth groups, particularly one that has been associated with one of the London bombers.

His rationalisation of events is understood as him asking us to believe that we need to find the balance of this act of terrorism with understanding that the occupation of the Muslim land is what caused the English born muslim to commit acts of terrorism on innocent people.

I suggest that the Leaders of our Muslim communities takes their youths with such beliefs back to the motherland they idolise to help in the trenches defending their people.

And then our Australian's of the Muslim faith may feel homesick.

Ten days ago, meeting with seven other well-read middle-aged women, most of whom have raised well-educated children and grandchildren, and seven of whom are fairly recent refugees from Sydney to the Lake Macquarie area, there was much discussion of "what's going wrong with cities like Sydney" - and we meant not just in Australia. Agreed opinion was that an absolute stop to immigration from the Middle East in particular and from Asia was the first priority.

I don't know if we're in the silent minority or the silent majority. Certainly none of us attends church, though we all were raised in Christian households with "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" beliefs. We hold no general ill will to individuals from the Middle East but we abhor what has happened to suburbs of Sydney where "spot the Aussie" is the way things are now, with no hope of it ever being different. And don't tell me that because the intruders have taken advantage of what Australia offers -or indeed are operating businesses in their own rights - they have assimilated into the Australian way of life.

It appears to us that there is nowhere in the world where Muslims and Christians can live side by side in harmony - witness Lebanon, France, Britain, Yugoslavia - for any length of time. Muslims can't even bear living with each other - witness Iraq. Of course, you could also say that of Christians in Ireland - but what can you expect of the Irish?

But to the point: why ruin our country?

Not being a frequent flyer, the ‘actual’ number of airports that have only dedicated Muslim prayer rooms as opposed to non-denominational, multi-denominational, all denominational, all religion or just plain prayer rooms, is a bit unclear.