I find it absurd to presume that everyone who identifies as Muslim will therefore have a specific (fundamentalist) approach to reading the Koran and the traditions.
There are some pretty nasty things in the Bible, but I don't automatically assume that all Christians believe in putting them into practice.

it is interesting whilst at the same time muslims assert their identity, westerners are extremely self critical to the point of self deprecation

racism is a white problem?

that assumes racism comes only from whites so is inadvertently racist, get your act together rainier

Davo, I've dealt with racisms - big and small, benign and overt, all my life davo. I say with with no badge of honor, its just how it is. How do you deal with it everyday?

IAN.. umm was that a response ? a grappling with the issue ?

Ok..I'll assume it was.. but I know you can do better.

Firstly... big tick.... you are RIGHT.. it IS absurd to suggest 'all' muslims or that 'anyone' who identifies with Islam will have the same fundamental understanding of the Quran and Hadith.. and for me, I cannot recall saying that.. so its a red herring or a straw Mossie, but its not what I've been saying.

Please take the trouble to read more carefuly, I structure my posts very thoughtfully believe it or not. I try to be careful to avoid 'generalizations' and throwing the ethnic baby out with the bathwater.

I've maintained all along and repeatedly, that the 'radical' end of the Muslim community spectrum will be the problem.

NASTY THINGS IN THE BIBLE... another brilliant observation !

Now.. lets go the extra mile and examine:

-Context

Are the 'nasty' things 'commandments' 'reports of bad behavior' or what ?

The book of Kings is a littany of repeated bad ungodly behavior. Not even blind Nellie or her cousin Dumb Steve would be so stupid as to suggest that a report of a bad king is some kind of commandment or example to follow.

In fact.. as each king is mentioned, their bad behavior is SPECIFICALLY used to illustrate how NOT to act.

IAN.. I seriously recommend some reading, on biblical interpretation.
(And Islamic Law may be beneficial) So, you can evaluate Philo's reproduction of a quote from Sharia law how a female captive is 'allocated by the Islamic state to be the sex slave' of soldiers (literally)

If you read the Levitical law about Captives, you would see immediately the difference between the 'Grieve for a month' and the Islamic "Don't have sex with her for a cycle... to SEE IF SHE IS PREGNANT'.. i.e. its nothing to do with her emotional need to recover from the trauma of war, its just to see if she is preggers or not so the master can sleep with her without another mans child in her tummy.

Realist “that comment on Aborigines was a little harsh. Every race is assimilating.
I look forward to your family joining many with aboriginal heritage in the near future”

I have no problem with that.

I would observe “people” make their own individual choices which make it certain that the “purity” of an ethnic sub-group will dilute over time as individuals follow up on their individual choices to procreate with people of other ethnic sub-groups.

Hence, aborigines will expire as an identifiable “ethnic group”, as surely as Saxons, Angles, Picts Celts and Normans have disappeared from England (although outcrops of Picts and Celts exist as inbred throw-backs in Ireland and Scotland).
I would similarly forecast radical Islamic values will disappear as successive generations identify closer with Australian cultural values, Women from Islamic and associated ethnic sub-group origins will decide that “the respect as equal” from a Christian is more acceptable than brutal domination and subjugation from an arrogant Islamic dullard. Likewise, there is nothing to be gained by following the rabid ravings of a bunch of religious fascists who are the power force in third world backwater.

Ultimately “there are a lot of coffee coloured people in Brazil”. Australia will follow a similar path and for our descendants, being “Australian” will be how our children and grand children will describe themselves, not as Greek, Italian, English, Lebanese or Koori or TSI etc.

So you can accept either a melding of cultures and ethnic origins or you can preach the “purity of the race” rubbish (in which “Aboriginal heritage” substitutes for “Aryan master race”), either way individual people will make their individual choices for their own personal reasons and that guarantees assimilation.

Rainier “I'd ask Col over to my place for a cup of tea and to watch a few episodes of Dad's Army but I fear he'd take up the offer! “

I would hate for you to consume your annual social budget in one grand gesture Rainier, after all renting a DVD and buying a box of “English Breakfast” costs money.

Boaz, the historical perspective of these particular IRA bombings is that it was predominantly a protest against the existence of positive discrimination (jobs, mostly) in favour of the protestants of the six counties. Invoking Cromwell is akin to blaming the present islamic suicide bombings on Richard I's massacre of three thousand unarmed muslims at Acre in 1191.

And Philo, I certainly do not assume that the terrorists are "merely deranged criminals". Of course they have an agenda, and of course it is masterminded by intelligent people. They are intent upon destabilization as an immediate goal, with political change as the longterm objective.

If you subscribe to the Boaz view of life, this is simply the start of a war against christianity, which won't end until Islam achieves world domination. I tend to think otherwise, that this is just another eruption of emotion from a group of people who perceive themselves as somehow downtrodden by richer and more powerful forces. It will blow over in twenty or thirty years or so, but in the meantime we should avoid the temptation to escalate it in our own minds from its simplistic foundations. Jobs, money, pride. Exactly the same as the IRA.

One of the most dangerous approaches that we can take to this situation is to glorify it with the image of a holy war. To do so is to reinforce the black-and-white imagery that extremists of both sides adopt in order to rationalize their positions. This is the aspect of it all that leads me to describe the words that Boaz uses as "rabble-rousing", an activity that invariably eschews annoying detail in favour of the emotive sound bite.

Unfortunately, we have a government (as does the US and the UK) that prefers grandstanding to the media over the development of sober, thoughtful, compassionate and constructive responses to a difficult situation. In doing so, they can, and do, make the situation more perilous for all of us.