Fellow Human

Your point to redneck:

"Your paranoia (ie suspicion) will always be there no matter what we do or do not do."

And that is the sad truth. No matter what you do or say there are people in this country (and I wouldn't have believed it possible until I started contributing to this forum) who really want to believe that all 300,000 Aussie Muslims are plotting against the rest of the Australian population. It would be funny, except the ramifications such as Cronulla are the result.

The Fear Factor at work. It has always worked - Cambodia, Nazi Germany, Rwanda, Palestine, Israel and on and on.

It is depressing to keep on going with posts sometimes - the hatred does get to me.

So I credit you with your patience - you are far more patient than I and this inspires me to keep going too.

Cheers

Fellow_Human, Scout, wibble thank you all for your attempts to bring some balance to these threads. They are getting somewhat tiresome and I am so glad that others have hung around to attempt to provide some moderate view to these posts - balance would probably be when we had some muslim extremists posting stuff which was as outragous as the muslim bashers one sided viewpoints.

The continual ignoring of the realities of human behaviour, portrayal of the worst excesses of the muslim world as the norm etc are useful for capitilising on the fear factor or what is different just as similar techniques have always been to instill fear and hatred of a portion of the community in the broader community. Some of mankinds worst moments as a species have followed similar campaigns.

Those who involve themselves in the campaign of villification should have a long hard look at the times in history when similar campaigns have been raged and ask themselves if they really want to keep the company they find themselves in. They should ask if the real risk posed by the presence of 300,000 muslims in a country of about 20 million is such that it is worth the cost we will all pay as a result of the kind of increased power to governments, damage to society etc that goes along with whiping up fear is justified.

It's time for an end to the non stop bashing of all things muslim by some so that we can move on to addressing the issues we could be talking about.
- how can we address the issues posed by ethnic crime gangs and are the actual rates of involvement higher than in the general community.
- how can we get migrants (and their kids) to integrate into the broad community (getting over anglophobia where it exists).
- what can we reasonably expect of migrants when they come here in terms of involvement in the political process, use of welfare, economic contribution, change of cultural values (status of women etc).

R0bert

In reply to the poster who asks for examples of name-calling by Muslims - here are a few. I could provide hundreds of similar quotes but the space here is limited:

1. Muslim leaders clarify anti-Semitic remarks
Last Updated Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:06:04 EDT
CBC News
VANCOUVER - Two high-profile Muslim leaders in Canada have been forced to issue clarifications for anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli comments.

In East Vancouver, the head of the Dar al-Madinah Islamic Society came under attack for calling Jews "brothers of monkeys and swine" during a recorded lecture following Israel's killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, last spring.

2. Our very own bigot, Sheik Elhilaly has referred to Jews in similar terms many times. All in the public domain, look it up.

3. In a weekly sermon in April 2002, Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the highest-ranking cleric in the Sunni Muslim world, called the Jews "the enemies of Allah, descendants of apes and pigs."

4. Saudi sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, imam and preacher at the Al-Haraam mosque – the most important mosque in Mecca - urged the Arabs to give up peace initiatives with Jews because they are "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs."

5. In another sermon, "Read history and you will understand that the Jews of yesterday are the evil fathers of the Jews of today, who are evil offspring, infidels, distorters of [others'] words, calf-worshippers, prophet-murderers, prophecy-deniers... the scum of the human race 'whom Allah cursed and turned into apes and pigs...' These are the Jews, an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption..."

These men are 'practicing Muslims' if I am not mistaken

Scout, Robert, Fellow_Human.

I understand it is psychologically difficult to face up to what is happening in our world.

Please read, moderate your language and come to grips with reality. Don't be afraid.

http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/938

To Fellow Human.

If Muslims are “dealing with it”, could I suggest that you come back in a couple of hundred years when you have got your medieval mindsets and your written religious intolerance towards non Muslims sorted out? Until you do, you can hardly complain if Australians regard Muslims as an unacceptable threat.

Could I ask you a few plain, simple questions? I am a “fornicator”. Do you believe that I should be stoned to death? Do you think that Muslim apostates should be murdered? Do you think that non Muslims “not of the Book” should either convert to Islam, or be murdered?

The reference to Sheik al Hilali calling people from other national and religious groups “pigs”, “dogs” and “snakes”, comes from a feature article on Sheik Hilali by the politically exquisite Sydney Morning Herald. (Sept 14, 2002) The same article quoted Hilali from an SBS-TV feature, in which he praised suicide bombers and made other comments so incendiary, that according to the SBS, “they ended up on the cutting room floor.” What remained of Hilaly's sermon to his congregation looked so bad on SBS-TV, that when the SBS news crew returned to interview the Sheik again, a crowd of his peaceful Muslim mates beat the SBS news crew half to death.

This same man, the leader of Muslims in the Sydney area, also gave a speech at Sydney University in 1988, where he told his audience of Scout and RObert clones that “the Jews want to control the word though sexual perversion, the promotion of espionage, treason and economic hoarding.”

If one of Islam’s leading clerics in Australia makes leaves no doubt that he despises other religious and national; groups, do you not think it hypocritical when he cries crocodile tears over Australian hostility to Muslims, and preaches sermons to the gullible press that we are all living in multicultural harmony?

As for interacting with Muslims, I prefer to keep my distance from people who’s religious beliefs mandate that I must be murdered in a cruel, painful and slow way.

Phew!

I have just read the article and all of the postings.

All I can say is all Christians aren't bad or all good, and all Muslims are not all bad or all good. Same applies to agnostics and atheists. Nothing new.

Cheers
Kay