Thanks heaps for your post chainsmoker, it’s reinvigorated me to keep going. That this site is sponsored by reputable education and public comment institutes is a puzzle to me. Many of the posters here are openly inciting racism.

You would think it was in the interest of these institutions public reputation to take some interest in the quality of discussion taking place here. Providing proof that Right wing lunatics and political parties infest this site would be difficult- the evidence is plain to see.

If this forum is to prove to be a useful educational tool then it certainly needs some quality control mechanisms in place ASAP.

Until it does have some quality control it won’t attract people who are actively engaged at a grassroots level, professional vocation or other to bring new knowledge and perspectives.

Perhaps it’s used by Howard’s spin doctors to develop more dog whistles? What ever its use, it’s certainly appears quite acceptable for posters to proclaim racist opinions / unfounded claims without any fear at all.

I know I’m totally over trying to explain to their psychological hang-ups back to them or indulge in what they consider to be insightful intellectual comment –when by any legal and civilised standard - its racial vilification writ large. They don’t seem to know the difference and if they do it simply confirms that its politically organised which raises serious questions about the whole show.

I can also understand that for many of the flat-earthers and conspiracy theorists here, this is representative of their own virtual Australia and it’s their chance to feel important by safely attacking someone who is Muslim or not white such as Salam who in return is racially, sexually and religiously vilified. But apparently this is free speech in Australia, OLO style - where computer posting is the new Klan white hood and sheet.

But I remind myself that this isn’t representative of the mass consciousness of the nation, it’s only a forum on a website. But it does raise important questions about how prevalent and widespread these racist and uninformed ideas are.
Cheers bro.

Meredith,

Leyton wears it backwards to keep the sun off the back of his neck and to keep his long hair out of the way. Now that he has no hair, and the Australian Open is indoor, and he's grown up a little, he wears it the correct way around.

Actually, our Aussie 'champ' and 'Australian of the year' sets up his finances through an overseas fund to avoid 'Ausralian' tax. Funny that, 'Australian' of the year is not contributing tax (like the rest of us) that, like it or not, pay for 'Australian' roads, schools hospitals etc etc.

Back to the topic. People, no matter what religion they subscribe to, will twist it to suit themselves. Seems the only line in the Bible the yanks like to play on is 'eye for an eye'. They forget in the New Testament that Jesus quoted 'Turn the other cheek'.

Continued…

The twisting of religion is no different for certain Islamic groups. Male religious leaders have twisted the historical origins of their religion to serve their twisted vision. In the process they commit a considerable degree of evil. Your reference to women's rights and stoning is a highly relevant one in this case. It is barbaric beyond words what some of these people think they can do to women. One of the more horrifying cases was the public hanging of 16 year old Ateqeh Rajabi in Iran, whose only crime was adultery. The male offender only got 100 lashes.

During this hanging most people stood around, watched and did nothing. As for my former reference to the lifestyles of Aussies and Yanks... I could find a lovely comparison between Islams and Yanks too - out of the most prominent nations to strongly support and retain the death penalty, there are Islamic states and... the USA. The latter executes men and women alike, and only outlawed the execution of child criminals on the 1st of March 2005. The USA has the highest death row inmate population in the world, highest rate of gun-related deaths and injuries, highest rate of violent crimes, highest overall prison population per capita, highest rate of violent sexual assault, theft, etc etc which I think says it all. Violence, it seems is the very fabric of this 'great nation' of which we are allies.

And we point the finger solely at Islam? Funny how G.W. Bush can criticise the regimes of so many other nations while there are scores of people dying in the streets of his own country.

I have good American friends, too. Most of which are the first to admit the violence of which their nation has come to stand for. Have a look at this site for endless entertainment on American violence.

www.crimelibrary.com

I think that the main word in Religion and Law is Justification.

If you can justify it, then that appears to be enough.

Rainier

I'd dispute your claims of vilification and racism. While there are some who hold such views they are not overly prevelant. I do see a good deal of angry posturing on some issues that pertain to some groups and I see adeal of criticism of religion, I also see a good deal of those things Dirk spoke about. However that has been far from onesided.

I don't think you should play the traditional leftist card of criticising people's views as racist etc just because they are different to yours. I think you'd be much better off debating their views and answering their questions. That sort of thing raises debate ...name calling and labelling only antagonises people, even me.

You see your criticism was a blanket criticism. I don't know whether you think my views racist. On another thread you certainly suggested I was racist but you didn't come out and say so directly. If you are going to chant racist then let's see the specific's rather than the cant and then let us debate your claim.

What you did in this post is generalise and criticise. No detail. No logical presentation. No rigour.
You cannot claim that as 'insightful intellectual comment'.
You've just done what you criticise others as doing.
Chainsmoker has done exactly the same thing and you both dog whistle each other.

Perhaps we should have the ABC,the Democrats and the universities to act as monitors here. They are all sooooo impartial. Aren't they ?