Thanks for the article, an interesting read. Very similar to the brand of Islam promoted by the "Islamic Awareness Society" at uni last week, and I think one, that most Muslims raised in Australia support.

You mention a lot of positive things about Islamic culture- the development of science, some sort of support shown to women, etc.- and I couldn't help thinking about all of the devout Christians that have brought about so much development in science to, or the revolutionary way that Jesus, 800 years before Mohammad and his dozens of wives, treated women as equal.

To the non-Muslim and non-Christian, we pretty much follow the same God anyway. They see our God as the same one.

I think the biggest non-theological difference is in how the two faith systems can operate under politics. Broadly, Christianity can work in conjunction with democracy. The early Christians, according to the New Testament, and under Jesus' direction, would go all over the known world preaching the Gospel. As individuals got changed, societies got changed.

On the other hand, Mohammad and his early followers, after his first 17 "unsuccessful" years of ministry (the time when he wrote all the nice things in the Koran but unfortunately had less than 200 followers), spread his religion by bloody force. Although, particularly in Western democracies, Muslims will try and convert through friendship, etc., the ultimate means of taking a civilization for Islam, has always been to take over a society, and thus force the individuals within it to change.

Thus, although the Koran does have some ideas of "human rights", a lot of these can not function when a secular heathen non-Allah-worshiping parliament is in progress. You might think alcohol is one of the roots of all evil- cool- but don't expect Parliament to outlaw it any time soon.

You spoke a lot about being a Muslim but not about being an Australian. I think being Australian is best summarised in the following.

'The freedom of all Australians to express and share their cultural values is dependent on their abiding by mutual civic obligations. All Australians are expected to have an overriding loyalty to Australia and its people, and to respect the basic structures and principles underwriting our democratic society. These are: the Constitution, parliamentary democracy, freedom of speech and religion, English as the national language, the rule of law, acceptance and equality.'

Tony Kevin,

The only person you have the right to apologise for is yourself, if you feel the need. Very cheeky of you!

Your sojourn to the land of sun and oloroso didn’t change you. You have your opinions; others have theirs.

A man of your education should be able to tell the difference between ‘racism’ and criticism of Islam. Even our resident Muslim, Irfan Yusuf, is always quick to point out that Muslims come from many ethnic and racial backgrounds, including yours and mine.

You also have a lot to learn to learn, Tony; and what you need to learn isn’t found in books

Marilyn, beliefs cause the problems, those following those beliefs then become the problem. You wrote, “I rarely feel safe alone with even a couple of Australian men “. May be you've never met a real Australian man, who could stand being with you.

You and Nayeefa believe its fine belittling those not following a particular monotheistic path and no wanting more proponents of despotic, barbarous Yahweh in our country. All followers of god intend taking over the world, its in all their books. Nayeefa is typical of monotheistic mind set, bigoted, racist, sexist, as you are, self-righteous and blind to reality.

I agree many times with you, but your intent seems as irrational as monotheists, having the same outcome, the fracturing of our society. If you can't see where this forced acceptance of these barbaric ways is leading us, then you've failed as a humanitarian and become an advocate of social degeneration, under the guise of supposed caring. Lets have a country free from repressive religious cultures.

It may be an obsessive disorder, monotheists suffer from, requiring them to impose their stupidity upon reluctant sensible people, by increasingly forceful means. Countries under gods control, have the death penalty, use torture, degrade and enslave women. They program children to hate non believers or other factions and live in mental destitution without freedom of thought or action.

You're doing all in your power to fill Australia with more mental misfits posing as lost souls. We've seen 3500 years of their niceness, it's outcomes and its spreading destruction. Still, having a one way brain, doesn't help either, just ask Boaz and Co. Your all in the same boat just using different oars.

There's only one way to stop this, ban the public expression of religion. Anyone not happy with that, give them a ticket to wherever they want to go, if they can't decide, send them to the origins of their belief. Its a perfect example of the hell they produce.

Mercurius, you still don't have a clue about real life yet, do you.

Can I make an observation? Alot of the names I see here making anti-migrant remarks are the same names I see at other blogs. There is a blog of someone called Tom Blair (did I get it right?). And there is also a blog which someone called "Leigh" does. She claims to be a conservative christian. And there's another blog I found where people spend alot of their time praising white supremacy groups and spreading hatred of particular people they think are Moslims.

It sounds to me like these forums are one place this lot like to hang out at. And during office hours. I'm having my morning break and I am just about to get back to work.

So don't worry, Tony and others. The racists here are just the same people who hang around other sites. It's all the same people. There is only a handful of them - thankfully.

I re-read Nayeefa's article again and not everything she says is totally accurate. She is trying to communicate her culture with words. I'd rather she do that than copy the British National Front or KKK and communicate culture with fists.

Billie,

The Mormons are not Christians – it is a false cult that is piggybacking on the name of Christ. It is deep into the occult. So I don’t really see your point in this discussion about Islam as a rampant political force in our country and the Mormons?

The Alchemist,

There is a difference between Allah and Yahweh even if you don’t want to understand it. Maybe reading on the subject might be helpful. Right now your posts don’t make much sense to main stream Australians. Like it or not there is a war out there – you can’t avoid that fact by hiding behind your stupid ideas.

Popovich,

Good post – welcome to OLO – we need balanced intelligent points of view here.
Although not sure what you mean by “Christians do not hold Jesus to be perfect, ie he was capable of making mistakes.”

Sharkfin and Kvasir,

Yeah, who cares what Arabs may have invented, contributed, or acquired by force? It’s all in the past.
The war on terror is today and now. What does Islam stand for now? What good are the Moslems really bringing to world peace and security today?

Nayeefa’s article is a plea for acceptance by stealth. She knows damn well that Islam has nothing positive to offer Australians – so she (and others) resorts to propaganda.

Islam is not your common migrant. Islam is here to invade and conquer Australia. Prove me wrong.