Salam is a defender of her faith (Islam) of course, as all of them are they will never admit to being in an antiquated,backwards religion that never changes.
REAL,Christians try to keep ,with the times,but won't relinquish the Bible ,even though it is old,but just as new as fresh daily bread to the converted .
We (Christians ) know when we are doing wrong ,our laws tell us (all from the Bible) and our calendars (from Jesus Birthday) that He is God and Messiah and in charge .
Yes,we love al mankind as Jesus NEW commandment was to love one another as He loved us .That's to die to our flesh,man's ideologies,self and wanting our ways instead of God's

Islam was originated by Mohammed ,"a nut case", read Alberto Rivera story and history of Mohammed in the comic book form called "The Prophet", he had first hand knowledge of Mohammed's plans to take over the world and it is still on,. Read is online .His.http://www.chick.com/reading/comics/0117/theprophetindex.asp

The Bible tells us and Jesus Christ tells us, in the book of Revelations, that an army will surround Israel,by kings of the east in valley of Meddigo to try and annhialate Israel and all Jews,with an army of 200 million (now possible) but GOD will have wipe them out with blood shed up to a horses bridle and their faces will melt as wax and their tongues cleave to their mouths.
This is Islam's plans ,for all who side with Israel (read the book of Zecharia) and Revelations it is all up to date, I don't think the koran is.
What will happen Salam when world war 3 is declared with the west vs the middle east soon? It also says they will be a people who will behead anyone not accepting their religion .
So that is NOT Christians ,who will it be ?

Will the Muslims in Australia stand for Oz or the opposite?
When Italy joined the Germans in WW 2 all Italians in OZ were jailed or sent back to their real homelands .
I pray our government awakes .

"Ask Islamic leaders for advice". Why? We have NO Islamic leaders in our government and ,hopefully, never will.
You are a stereotype of all we see in your religion.
Augumentive, demanding, aloof. Always ready to complain and always ready to play the victim.
And always ready to criticise how Australians live and play.
You are and always will be the outsider...because that is how you see yourself.

Salam,
As far as i'm concerned you are more of an Australian than many of the above posters. Some here would like to see a fundamental constitutional right of freedom of religious expression taken away from us. Now that is what I call un-Australian.

Dawood,

Good to read from you.

fair go, open, honest and fair, add value to the community, work hard and pay your taxes, obey the law, contribute to the community.
These are the Australian value that I enjoyed in this country for a decade now and what overwhelming majority of Australians (Muslims included) honour and live by.
But the Mosque-teers would have us believe that Australian values are pubbing and clubbing, drinking and eating bacon!
So a praying vegetarian is 'un-Australian'!

News flash people: drinking is a key reason of all harm on our streets from road accidents to domestic violence.

Salam,
"how Australian do we have to be before we can say we fit in just fine?
What is the Australian way of life?"

That you even have to ask this questions is a worry.
I assume from your story, and the example of sneaking off to the movies that you did grow up here, if not, surely you went to school here and went to Uni here. Have you segregated yourself from the wider Aussie community so much that you don't know?

There are no degrees of being Australian, you either are or not.

I agree with some of the previous posts about religion (regardless which one it is). In Australia, most people that choose to have a religion as part of their lives, is just that, a part of their lives, not a way of life. I suppose thats why Islam seems so alien to Aussies, and why most adamant belivers of Chritianity keep it to themselves (spare a few in this forum).
pj

The term “Australian” means a lot more than a person’s place of residence. It could be equated with “brother and sister”. It is a term which signifies the common kinship of a group of people.

Winning acceptance from any group is always difficult, because it is the candidate’s group's responsibility to display behaviour which shows acceptance of the social norms of the group to which they aspire to join. Any candidate group which displays behaviour which clearly indicates a rejection of the primary groups cultural norms, will not be accepted. This non acceptance is exacerbated if the candidate group insists upon wearing cultural uniforms which openly display their primary allegiance to their own kinship group.

It is further exacerbated if members of the candidate group are seen to be threatening or parasitic to the primary group.

Where significant numbers of a candidate group are perceived to be hostile to the primary group, the primary group may judge the entire group to be hostile. The onus is then upon candidate group to make it absolutely clear to those of it’s own members who’s behaviour is ringing them into disrepute, that their beheviour will not be tolerated. Any attempt by the candidate group to justify the behaviour of their own members who are threatening or hostile to the primary group, simply reinforces the attitude within the primary group that the entire candidate group can not be trusted.

One very important factor in Australian hostility to Muslims, is the Muslim’s own ideology which most Australians see as fundamentally hostile. If Muslims have a religious conviction that people who have sex outside of marriage must be put to death in a cruel way, then the Australians will obviously consider them hostile and dangerous.

If Ms Zreika truly wishes her Muslims find acceptance with Australians, then as an absolute minimum first step, it is up to her and her own communities religious leaders to unilaterally renounce this particular aspect of their Sharia Law. Failure to do this will simply reinforce the already prevalent attitude that Muslims are dangerous and worthy of hostility and deep mistrust.