While I agree that blind US support for Israel's relentless campaign of politicide against the Palestinians is especially galling for Muslims, I would add that it is equally a turn-off for the rest of us. As the perceptive Tony Judt pointed out in a NYT op-ed on 19/4/06: "Looking back, we shall see the Iraq war and its catastrophic consequences as not the beginning of a new democratic age in the Middle East but rather as the end of an era that began in the wake of the 1967 war, a period during which American alignment with Israel was shaped by two imperatives: cold-war strategic calculations and a new found domestic sensitivity to the memory of the Holocaust and the debt owed to its victims and survivors. For the terms of strategic debate are shifting. East Asia grows daily in importance. Meanwhile our clumsy failure to re-cast the Middle East - and its enduring implications for our standing there - has come into sharp focus. American influence in that part of the world now rests almost exclusively on our power to make war: which means in the end that it is no influence at all. Above all, perhaps, the Holocaust is passing beyond living memory. In the eyes of a watching world, the fact that an Israeli soldier's great-grandmother died in Treblinka will not excuse his own misbehaviour. Thus it will not be self-evident to future generations of Americans why the imperial might and international reputation of the US are so closely aligned with one small, controversial Mediterranean client state. It is already not at all self-evident to Europeans, Latin Americans, Africans or Asians. Why, they ask, has America chosen to lose touch with the rest of the international community on this issue?"

Win the hearts and minds of Muslims? What nonsense. The author himself has pointed out that Muslims see everything according to their religion. There is no common ground between the West and the Muslim world. Rice was a lickspittle, even suggesting that the US "respects" Islam. Islam must be seen only as it is presented by its adherents: a monster from the Dark Ages, intent on domineering the world. There is no "respect" in it for non-Muslims.

Futher licence has been awarded to Muslims in Australia. Today it was announced by the AFP, on legal advice, that it is OK for Muslim bookshops to sell books inciting violence and racism (it brings shame to be called Australian)in the land of the poor silly fools who have allowed them to come here and to reach 300,000 strong and still growing.

There is no heart in Islam, and the mind is twisted

Respect for Muslim people..AS people is one thing, respect for the 'faith' is another.

These are the signs held 'in your face' in the UK during the cartoon/freedom of expression controversy, showing the true colors of that faith:

-DEATH to those who insult Islam
-SLAUGHTER those who insult the prophet
-BUTCHER those who mock Islam
-BEHEAD those who insult Islam
-Europe you will PAY, demolition is on its way.
-Europe is the CAncer, Islam is the Answer
-Islam will DOMINATE the world.
-Britain, take some lessons from 9/11
-Be prepared for the REAL holocaust.

Now.. if these were words from err..lets say "The Lords Resistance Army" of Uganda... we might just fob them off as brain damaged fanatics. If they were Wahabi protestors in Saudi Arabia, we might say "Ah well.. that's them".... If they were Taliban marching in Western Pakistan, free from the scrutiny of the Army, we might understand how they got away with it....

BUT.....

That they would be able to say these things in ENGLAND in PUBLIC is nothing less than a declaration of ALL OUT WAR !

That the UK has not identified and arrested every single person carrying such a sign, is evidence to our weakness and stupidity.

If such things were simply an abberation of Islamic history and doctine, we could dismiss them as lunatics. But they are not.

All the signs listed above, do in fact reflect the doctrines, the ensuing Islamic law reflected in the major schools of jurists.
If Mohammed would gouge out the eyes, cut off the hands and feet of Camel thieves, leaving them to die slowly in the desert heat, and massacre 6-800 or so surrendered Jews... what can we expect ?

There is nothing to respect in this faith, but blinded individuals should have the opportunity to see light.

God save us from those who've "seen the light."

Strewth..... no...God save us from those who hold up such signs...or did you miss the words on them ?

I didn't notice any concerned Imams running frantically around scolding the 'evil misrepresentations' of Islam.. did you ?

Are you able to successfully defend Islam against the charge "This is a relfection of Islamic law based on the 4 main schools" ?

Do you SHARE the views expressed by such signs ? (otherwise why would you come out with such a declaration as u did ? )

Lets look closely at what you said:

God....(which ?) save us (which us) from...... 'Those who have seen the light'

when I have called for the simple implementation of the law against sedition or hate speech or.. (any number of laws must apply to this). Calling for the murder of people on the basis of being critical of a so called prophet, is to my mind sedition against the state, because the state allows such criticism.

I just forgot to add in my last post the word 'deportation'. So, reviewing:

-Identification
-Arrest
-Deportation/ with stripping of citizenship first if neccessary. (after changing legistlation to that effect if needed)

Your comment is amazing

People call for the 'Butchering, Slaughtering, Beheading etc of:"Those who mock Islam"

and you.. YOU are saying 'Save us from those who are the target of such signs'..... arn't u ? Or perhaps just those (like me) who realize that such things are not idle threats, but outright manifestations of militant/Quranic Islam.

Are you planning to hold a protest outside the Jail where those Muslims are awaiting trial on terrorism charges in Melbourne ? (for allegedly plotting to assasinate our PM and his family among other things)...hmmm its all getting rather close to home.. and we have people with your attitude saying 'save us'..... but not from the perpetrators.. no..from the intended VICTIMS.

The words '5th column' come to mind.

Muslim hearts and minds is an argument that has largely been moved on from. I think the conclusion being that there are irreconcilable differences. More interesting is what happens when the ummah finally manages to inflame the Western street. The results presumably being a bit more calculated and drastic than a few firebombed KFC restaurants.

And strewth, please spare us the cut and paste screeds from your well thumbed Pilger anthologies. I much prefer your innate vulgarity expressed in your own words.