Minuet,it's funny that you should mention the Insight Programme.I was there and it was good to see the Muslim women having a positive imput.They are between a rock and a hard place.Educated Muslim women want to enjoy the freedoms of democracy and still feel accepted by their own culture.They are just as repulsed by the nutter hard liners as us.

The major dilemmas are the diversity of interpretations of the Koran,the egotistical male dominance of their culture,and a belief system based on superstition and heresay rather than facts ,logic or scientific method.It is a recipe for chaos,hate and war.

It is time the Muslims took a step back from religion as do most other cultures in the world today.Religion gives us emotional support,while logic and science helps us to cope with reality and improve our circumstances.While the positive values of religion can be reflected in our political sphere,the lores,practises and superstitions should be excluded.

Arjay

You said >>The major dilemmas are the diversity of interpretations of the Koran,the egotistical male dominance of their culture,and a belief system based on superstition and heresay rather than facts ,logic or scientific method.It is a recipe for chaos,hate and war.<<

As opposed to the egotistical male dominance of western culture? Just look at the comments posted by the seriously misogynistic christians to this forum.

As an outsider, many muslim women do feel, as you said, between a rock and a hard place.

Women are still treated as second class citizens the world over. The physical act of wearing a hijab simply makes it more obvious - it takes a lot of courage too. Even more courage than to wear metal studs like I do - I'm just regarded as a freak, but Muslim women are regarded as the enemy.

But otherwise, you make some good points and power to you for attending the debate.

The positive values of religions such as tolerance, compassion, charity and love are universal human values that should be encouraged. To respond with hate filled vitriol, as so many here are doing is simply stoking the fires of terrorism and prove why we need to rethink our strategies.

Xena,you are right,but I'm no bleeding heart lefty.If SBS or the ABC really want help stop this insanity they should do a serious drama about the issues of war in the Middle East and the social problems confronted in Aust by the various groups here.It must be honest and a warts and all series.It would be a chance to portray the political,economic and social problems that the world faces because the Middle East controls 65% of the world's oil.This is the reality that even the Bush Administration fails to acknowledge.

Can we however rely on SBS and Aunty to provide us with a balanced view of the world,rather than portraying the US and Anglo Australians as evil colonial conquerers?

The industrial,scientific and technical revolution began in Europe and the US.On average the Anglo Saxion culture has been very benevolent in passing on new technology in the form of medicine and food to poor countries.

A drama confronting both personal and international dilemmas could enlighten us all.

Arjay – don’t wait for ABC/SBS – check out movies made by people from the middle east.

This movie should be on at an arthouse cinema near you. Check it out.

Excerpt from Phillipa Hawker’s review.

'Turtles Can Fly' is set on the border between Iran and Turkey, just before the recent invasion of Iraq. Its principal characters are Kurdish children, from teenagers to toddlers, homeless and seemingly orphaned, refugees who are living in a state of uncertainty, but have found themselves a terrible kind of security and income: they scavenge mines, and sell them. Some of the scavengers have already lost limbs to the mines and they are among the most skilful retrievers.

Presiding over them is a boy known as Satellite (Soran Ebrahim) an enterprising, loquacious bespectacled boy who organises gangs of children to forage among the mines and then negotiates the selling price. He rides around on a bike, hectoring, hustling.
His nickname comes from his ability to haggle for and set up satellites dishes for the local communities, who are increasingly anxious to find out what's happening in the world beyond, even if it means risking the incursion of unwanted Western TV decadence into their lives: realising that a war is threatening them, they want news, even if it is a language they cannot understand.
Into the camp come newcomers: Hyenkov (Hirsh Feyssal), who has no arms, but seems to have an uncanny prescience, an ability to anticipate danger; his sister, Agrin (Avaz Latif) the haunting young girl of the opening sequence, whom Satellite is immediately drawn to; and their brother, Risa (Abdol Rahman Karim) a blind toddler, who clings to them both, but whom Agrin seems to shun, for reasons we will later discover.

There is a double sense of certainty and uncertainty in what we see: we know, after the opening flash-forward of the film, where Agrin's despair has led her, and we are aware, as viewers, that what the villagers anticipate - bombs, troops, a US invasion - will happen.

Cheers