I also flatly reject the notion that comments herein are Mozzie bashing.If the author wants to write an essay that makes certain claims that are open to dispute/debate and wishes people to draw inferences that are not supported by her evidence, then she deserves to be criticised.

As an immigrant as well,I am all for migrants integrating and making a contribution to our society, but let it be on the basis of openeness,and acceptance of what is here already.

Who gives a toss about what Islam contributed in the past.The issue is what can it,and its followers, contribute now. If the average joe blow aussie has some misgivings about muslim immigration and ability to integrate perhaps mulsims themselves should do some soul searching. Superficial essays like this one dont give one confidence they know how.

The moslems, therefore, are responsible for the distorted image of islam. Among those who incite to jihad, have you seen a single one who set out to wage jihad himself or sent one of his sons out to wage jihad? On the contrary - while encouraging innocent people to wage jihad in Iraq and in Chechnya, they themselves take additional wives....
What do you expect the west to do when it sees its citizens being murdered in the name of religion?
The truth that we must deal with today is that people of the West no longer trust moslems in general. The moslems in the West must therefore sever their ties with moslems in the east and repair their relations with Western societies by announcing that they accept the humane values on the basis of which they were recieved by the West. They must also sever their ties with religious clerics and their fatwas...If they fail to do this, they must bear the consequences and the difficulties that will ensue. They must not blame bin laden and al-zarqawi, but {only} themselves for being driven, in ignorance, by the views of the clerics.
Couldn't have put it much better myself, the above is from Dr. Ahmad Al-Baghdadi a reformist Kuwaiti intellectual and political science lecturer at Kuwait University. Regards, numbat

Ultimately, ones deeds will eventually betray true motive (or true nature) – until then it’s all just a matter of words. Those who blow themselves up (and others) in the name of Allah appear to defile their own so called ‘faith’ and certainly reveal their own innate violence – all who desire peace should unequivocally repudiate these actions, as I believe many Muslims have done – but it needs to be the majority.

The true nature of Mohamed or Jesus is guessed at through theology or traditional belief – unless of course your religion becomes one of ‘revelation’ with true understanding open only to a choice few. It will often be rather polemical when dealing with ‘true-believers’ because the basis for debate relies not on logic but their ‘authority’. Perhaps the four noble truths, eight fold paths and middle way of Buddhism is an exception. The true ‘seed’ of any belief or religion eventually unravels – the polemic we now have is but natural.

The issue at stake here (as has been pointed out) is not with Mohamed or Muslims generally but as to how we might all integrate peaceably within Australian society. We have evolved beyond the so called 1950’s ‘golden era’ – some believe we have denigrated (maybe…maybe not). Mohamed by all accounts, to put it perhaps a little crudely, wished to help create a more equal society where the marginalised and ‘underdog’ were given a go. He was known as the “last prophet” and Christianity calls Jesus, the “Son of God” – taken metaphorically, neither need contradict nor conflict. Taken obsessively and literally there’s plenty to fight about – but it’s really a furphy. The real issues of power, wealth and greed, as always, grip the world where we all seem to want more with the available resources literally drying up. The world is in testing times…if we get it wrong now it may be history’s last mistake.

If anyone has any doubt as to just how wrong Nayeefa is on just one of her points. Have a look at at this for starters.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=20552

The number of rape charges in Sweden has quadrupled over the last 2O years, with 85 % of these being by people who were born on foreign soil, and mainly from Algeria,Libya,Morocco and Tunisia.

Not much of an example to follow here

Hi Nayeefa,

Your imam says:

An Islamic mufti in Copenhagen, Shahid Mehdi stated in a televised interview that women who do not wear headscarves are "asking for rape."

http://jimball.com.au/features/Political%20%20uproar%20over%20mufti%27s%20rmearks%20-The%20Copenhagen%20Post.htm

In Australia's New South Wales Supreme Court in December 2005, a visiting Pakistani rapist testified that his victims had no right to say no, because they were not wearing a headscarf.

London Telegraph reported that visiting Egyptian scholar Sheik Yusaf al-Qaradawi claimed female rape victims should be punished if they were dressed immodestly when they were raped. He added, “For her to be absolved from guilt, a raped woman must have shown good conduct.”

Lebanese Sheik Faiz Mohammed gave a lecture in Sydney where he informed his audience that rape victims had no one to blame but themselves. Women, he said, who wore skimpy clothing, invited men to rape them.

In Sweden, “Gang rapes, usually involving Muslim immigrant males and native Swedish girls, have become commonplace.” A few weeks ago “Five Kurds brutally raped a 13-year-old Swedish girl.”

The BBC pulled a documentary that shows how Pakistani and other Muslim men sexually abused young, white English girls as young as 11 for fear of muslims.

In July 2005, Melbourne Sheik Mohammad Omran told Sixty Minutes that “...we believe we have more rights than you because we choose Australia to be our home and you didn’t

I have not had time to reply as I'd like to, here's an interesting read though. btw, I am one of those people that reads Tim Blair's website (www.timblair.net) and I do have my own (www.taoofdefiance.com)

A speech by John Stone, published in this month's Quadrant.
http://www.quadrant.org.au/php/article_view.php?article_id=2207

Extract:

"We need to understand that the core of the Muslim problem—for the world, not merely for Australia—lies in the essence of Islam itself. It is the problem of a culture that, for the past 500 years or so at least, has failed its adherents as its inward-looking theocracy has resulted in it falling further and further behind the West. It is that sense of cultural failure, that sense of smouldering resentment that fuels the fires so busily stoked by the more extremist Muslim teachers. Fiercely exclusive rather than inclusive, Islam holds that church and state are inseparable; that women, while respected so long as they stick to their appointed place in the Islamic scheme of things, are less than equal to men generally; and that even the most extreme violence is justifiable when applied in pursuit of approved Islamic ends. Until all that changes—and it can only be changed from within Islam itself, if indeed it can be changed at all—the Islamic culture will never reside in harmony with others.

This is where all those comfortable (one might even call them “lazy”) assumptions about our own Muslim community break down. Contrary to those assumptions, I do not believe that this latest body of newcomers amongst us will emulate the examples of their predecessors from Italy, Greece, Poland, the Baltic states, or more recently Vietnam, Hong Kong and China. How can it be possible for them to become part of a united Australia, when any Muslim woman who wishes to “marry out” risks not merely social and familial ostracism, but outright violence, even death by way of “honour killings”, by her father or her brothers? Almost without exception, the only marriages occurring in Australia today between Muslims and non-Muslims involve conversion to Islam of the latter.
(continued next post)