Celivia,

You are stereotyping "most" as being amused by the cartoons.

I for one am not smiling when I see one. I find them disturbing and telling.

Cartoonists have the ability to express the truth in grotesque exaggeration - but it's the truth anyway.

There is no escaping from the truth that all (or should I say ‘most’) acts of terrorism in recent times have been performed by the particular group that you are protecting.

Being tolerant is one thing but being naive is unacceptable these days. We are dealing with a violent, cunning, malign enemy, that will stop at nothing to establish its religious law in our country.

What's so bad about that you may ask?

Be informed about the political history of Islam...before you make comments that show your misapprehension of a very very grave situation the free world is facing today.

This is no laughing matter I can assure you.

Logic, that’s true- secure groups have established themselves and minority groups are still struggling to find their place. Thanks for pointing that out.

Coach, I am glad you are not amused by the cartoons. Do we agree that these cartoons are inappropriate?

I want to make clear though, that I am not at all, as you think, protecting terrorism or denying that acts of terrorism have been performed by Muslim extremists. I'm pro zero-tolerance for terrorism and violence.

But this article is particularly discussing Arabs in Australia. They are the people we meet in the street or the Arabs our kids might go to school with- they are not terrorists walking around wrapped in bomb-belts.

Both my children have Muslim friends from Arab countries (as well as Christian and non-religious friends) with whom they went/go to school with. They are lovely, really good kids and so are their families. They do nothing wrong. They just want a normal life just like we all do.

They do not approve of violence and destruction. Perhaps they wanted to emigrate to Australia for this reason- to escape from all that.
It is very distressing to know they, as peaceful people, are the victims of racial violence or abuse in Australia.

We must draw a clear line between extremism and conservatism in Islam. There is a line that only the extremists want to cross, where there is approval of violence to fight opponents, the disbelievers.

Muslims (not extremists!) are in a difficult position: they/their religion are being harmed not only by extreme Muslims but also by Westerners who don’t know this difference and blame and attack the conservative Muslims.

I still stick to my original (perhaps naive) opinion , and say that we need to differentiate, not stereotype. If we don’t then innocent people including children will suffer.
Cartoonists who use racial stereotyping are just representing the facts from only one angle and focus on the extremists- thereby giving a bad reputation to the whole Islamic population in Australia.

Celivia,

Thanks for acknowledging my post.

Your perception of Islam and it seems other religions too are very superficial.

In the case of Islam you can be sure that there is no clear line separating the radical extremist and your average good neighbour.

To prove my point you need look no further than the British-born model citizens that plot to destroy others for the only reason that their religion tells them to do so.

Those who don't go to that extreme will not condemn that behaviour and give you many pretexts that Islam is a religion of peace. Bull dust.

I haven't seen any mass protest from any muslem group against any of their terrorist acts - including Bali. On the contrary the only time they hit the streets is when someone attacks their religion.

It is a natural human quality to be on the side of non-violence - but Islam was founded on violence. (Check for yourself).

Islam is not your one of the mill world religion. It's only reason for existing is to propagate and acquire land for their own. Because they cannot integrate in new lands - unless they become secular, in which case they are ostracised by their own and are labelled as infidels (like all of us non-muslems) to the cause of Islam.

The persecution is self-inflicted. Let’s face it Islam cannot change to please the host country so they must change "it" to accommodate their religion.

My wife and I have spent more than fifty years (combined) in several Arabic speaking countries. We know Islam and its attitudes towards the west very well.

My prayer is that Australians will wake up in time to stop the tide that otherwise is going to engulf us if we don’t fence against it.

Coach, I am not here to defend Islam or to attack it, and I do not deny that there are problems with Islam.
The dangers you are pointing out may be valid- but this is not what this discussion is supposed to be about.

The discussion is about the fairness of degrading and ridiculing of muslims in Australia by drawing stereotyping cartoons about them and how it affects their life in a negative way and I think we have to talk about whether this is a healthy way of dealing with the fear and problems.

The amount of knowledge I have about religion is irrelevant to this issue because we don’t need knowledge about Islam to see that ridiculing ANY minority group in Australia is an unfair, inferior and primitive way of dealing with problems people face or criticism people have about Islam.

If one wants to criticise Islam as a religion that’s fine, but don’t vilify and make fun of innocent muslims.

Rather, think about what kind of strategy Australia uses to deal with this problem- does it need improvement?

If we find Islam an abusive, violent or dangerous religion threatening the safety of Australia and Australian democracy, then be a good example and think of non-threatening, non-abusive ways to handle this.

People die on our roads. We do not ban cars, but try to prevent accidents: improve on safe cars, safe roads, visible signs, testing for alcohol levels, fining speeding etc. We keep improving on safety. We do not ban cars.
We do not draw silly cartoons of drunk drivers running over a child and laugh about it.

When people are afraid of Islam, why don’t we speak of our concerns about safety concerning Islam?
There are many issues to discuss, for example setting Australian standards of qualification of Imams.

Coach

Christianity has equal dificulties in coming to terms with other faiths. But we are here together and both Christianity and Islam have to change their attitudes. No religion remains static in its beliefs. The situation in India is often positive and Japan has a great religious tolerance so it is possible.

Cartoons which reinforce anti-Arab attitudes (I have not seen one which lampoons Indian or Indonesian or black African Muslims) only compound the difficulty.