I worked for the Catholic clergy for ten years, a Jewish business family for five years and an establishment dominated by Methodist employers and employees, for two years. I have no religion.

I have retained many friends within all of the above groups. Whilst I respected the various religious ethos of my employers, religion was never a topic.

Dare I breach political correctness when I say that we Australians feel uncomfortable about Islam. And we have a right to be fearful when we consider the recurring Islamic persecutions of Christians in Africa, the Middle East, South West Asia and South East Asia. The violence and hatred perpetrated by members of Islam turns the past conflict in Ireland into a tea party.

When you have Islamic leaders inciting their members to burn down Christian churches, such as the Palestinian Muslims have done in Gaza and the West Bank and the murder of a nun in Somalia, simply because they disliked the Pope's speech, then Australians have every right to feel uneasy.

Australian Muslims claim they are peace loving. Then I ask that they direct their spokespeople to publicly condemn Muslims who are bombing and shooting innocent victims around the world. They will need to refer directly to the specific Islamic perpetrators of these heinous acts to earn credibility within the Australian community. Until they publicly take a stance against Islamic violence and cease being on the defensive, many will continue to view Australian Muslims as sympathisers of radical Islam. Sheik ali-Halali does little for his followers in this country!

If Muslims genuinely want acceptance in a country which practises Christian values, then Muslims must afford Christians in their past homelands, the same respect.

Dickie

The largest killing of people in Africa I think took place in Ruanda.
This country had a predominantly christian population and there are reports of members of the clergy taking part in the killing.
This did not seem to attract much interest, if muslims had been the killers it would have made the front pages for weeks.

Christian or Muslim fundamentalists have much in common. They are always right (in their minds) and the ends always justify the means.
Fundamentalists seem to govern by the politics of fear. Hitler used this system on the german people, they became so scared of being attacked that they let him have his way and start attacking other countries.

The people of Iraq did not attack the USA, the UK or Australia but they are the people who are dieing (sorry, I meant collateral damage).
Twelve years of sanctions prevented the country repairing its water supply, electrical and health systems and this resulted in the premature deaths of thousands. They were then invaded by countries whose people had been made afraid of being attacked with weapons of mass distruction. There still seems to be a problem finding these weapons.

If Australian Values are to be retained then we must stop listening to the fundamentalists of any religion. We need to start analyzing what they say instead of just accepting whatever we are told.

Chris,

I’m not one to propose a set of uniquely Australian characteristics -but if I were, at the top of the list I’d put a well developed appreciation for the art of irony. In my defence I’d cite your description of Stephensen’s article as “fine”.

CJ,

My understanding of Godwin’s Law is that applies to attempts to discredit an opposing view by drawing parallels with pro Nazi and anti-Semitic sentiment. I’m not sure if it applies when one uses such sentiment to support ones own. By the way, I’d say Australia’s National Anthem is probably the strongest argument ever for the abolition of the Commonwealth Games.

Boaz,

Sorry, mate, but no, I don’t “get this”. Stephensen’s polemic has enormous power when you consider the current debates about multiculturalism and cultural tolerance, but only when read with a darkly ironic mindset and an understanding of the contemporaneous and subsequent history. The Nazi holocaust provides the central case study of the 20th century of evil, genocide and intolerance. It is critical that we learn from this to avoid the same mistakes (if that’s not too mild a word) from happening again. Billie, Pericles and I have each provided excerpts from Stephensen’s piece which should make the irony obvious.

I seriously “don’t get” calls for racial or cultural homogeneity in my country, which has, for the last 200 years at least, been a nation of immigrants. Apart from anything else, I’m deeply suspicious of the standards of “Australianness” that might be set by such self appointed cultural guardians, or their motives for doing so

hmmm the nazi holocaust...what the hell does that have to do with Australian values? I know, that was the war featuring those nasty white people, and must be used to justify a diverse culturally void Australia.

Australian values evolved from the good old white Australia days. The rule of law, capitalism, freedom and democracy. Of course, Australia is now ethnically diverse because masses of consumers matter more than cultural and ethnic identity. To be more accurate, the identity of ethnic minorities is sacred and exciting whereas Anglo identity is, well, boring.

In fact, Anglo pride is a threat to the sham called multiculturalism.

Hells, the relevance of Nazisim to this discussion is that Boaz chose a second world war era document from a Nazi apologist as a model for our current discussions about multiculturalism and assimilation. The failings of that political ideology should provide obvious lessons for those who seek to reprise similar arguments about some kind of mythical ideal of cultural or racial homogeneity or to try to create spurious nationalist myths. While these fantasies might serve to assuage personal inadequacies, perceived hurts and other types of personal psychopathology, they can, as history has continually shown, have horrendous results once the psychosis goes national. And though the Nazis provided the model for understanding the dynamics behind 20th century genocides, this period of human nastiness was only one of a number during that century (the gold and silver medals actually go to the Stalinist era USSR and Maoist China). My belief is the propensity for such evil is, on the evidence of history, as hardwired into the human brain as any other kind of personal madness. It requires very careful handling.

To be perfectly frank, while I'm proud of my own Anglo Celtic heritage I have no particular burning desire to create a personal or political identity around it, and I have no interest in supporting those who want to dictate their own version of their Anglo heritage as compulsorily normative in this country.

I love my country, and in particular the value of a fair go for all. Bashing of any minority, whether they be Mossies, or Jews, or Asians, or Aboriginals, or gays or whatever is anathema to me. It’s simply bullying, and, dare I say it, un-Australian.

Thanks Pericles and Snout for stating explicitly what I was getting at. When I followed up the website whence Stephenson's odious diatribe was sourced, I noticed a preponderance of missives by one Jim Saleam - one of the most odiously infamous Australian "nationalists" one could name. That anybody could promote tripe such as Stephenson's, sourced from such a thinly disguised white supremacist website, almost defines new parameters for credulity. No wonder Howard (and Beazley's) "dog whistling" is so successful!

Also, many thanks to Snout for absolving me for my putative contravention of Godwin's Law :)

And I most heartily agree re the Commonwealth Games.