Xena, I have been following your thoughts, and would like to offer a suggestion. Rather than getting bogged down in who did what in the name of what religion - enough evidence to condemn us all - I would suggest you compare the life and teachings of the two leaders of the religions in question: Jesus and Muhammad. Followers of both these leaders have messed up - we must base our judgements on what is being taught by Jesus and Muhammad and compare them.

Religious Tolerance should allow us to compare our leaders without fear of litigation.

Wend

Mark Zirnsak actually shows his bias against non-mainstream Christians by applauding the decision by Judge Morris for the Salvation Army, while having a sly dig at the pastors from Catch the Fire Ministries. According to Zirnsak, quoting controversial scriptures from the Koran in the context of explaining the Muslim beliefs concerning Jihad, while telling ones listeners that as Christians they are to love their Muslim neighbours "promotes hatred" which, according to the HREOC website is the basis of vilifying behaviour. How paradoxical!

Funny, Mr Zirnsak, I thought that tolerance meant agreeing to differ with people whose opinion differed from yours, be they Muslim or 'fundamentalist' Christians. That being the case, the 'misinformation campaign' you so strenuously criticise is still valid, as this law has allowed two Christian pastors and the Salvation army to be dragged through expensive court-cases for varying lengths of time, with varying outcomes, because some people took exception to some of their comments, which is exactly what opponents of this law predicted.

I am as opposed to those who promote hatred as the next man, but this law has some serious flaws and, I believe, can be (and has been) badly misinterpreted by some Judges (actually, one in particular). I welcome the changes to this law, I only hope they go far enough to redress the balance.