Dear Mary (what a blessed name that is :)
we can actually 'do' something. All of us.

The first thing is NOT to have a knee jerk emotional reaction and suddenly start waving Aussie flags.

The 2nd thing is to become well informed about Radical Islam, and about the foundations of Islam itself and its so called prophet.

Personally, I would then recommend a 3rd thing, but not all readers will share my position, and that is, to reconnect our hearts, minds and wills with our God, through Christ Jesus in fellowship with the rest of His Body. (The/a Church)

This last point, is the one which will give restraint, compassion and strangely enough 'love' toward enemies. This does not mean that those who would enslave us are not to be fought with every ounce of strength we can muster, but it does mean that we accept limits to our efforts and never exceed 'reasonable force'. "Stop...but don't Stomp"
to coin a phrase.

The other factor is the confidence we have in life then. We are not limited to a pessemistic view of philosophical absurdity, no, we have direction, strength and hope which will not dissapoint us.

There is another thing you and I can do. Strengthen your cultural ties with fellow Australians. This might be as simple as picking up a stranded motorist who is walking toward a service station with a petrol tin..(as I did the other day) and then taking the extra time to run him back to his car, and spending some precious moments in social bonding.

References:

"Obsession: The threat of Racical Islam"
http://www.foxnews.com/ find the link to this under 'only on fox' then view the video.
Quote from former member of Hitler Youth member "You cannot understand radical Islam without understanding how Hitler radicalized the youth"

Life/Character of Mohamed
http://www.answering-islam.org/Books/Muir/Life4/chap37.htm

Dear Bashir

Your commitment to Truth, Compassion and Tolerance are to be admired.
The reality of your experience in Muslim 'abodes of peace' constrast with the dangerous fluency of the young Muslim apologists who use western logic effectively against the west (
see UK article on this site)
An intolerant creed - New Labour’s Islam policy
By Nasser Amin - posted Friday, 3 November 2006 http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5088

We in the west and austalia do not appreciate that the local garden varieties of muslims differ significantly from their more vigorous cousins and uncles in far off exotic and unknown climes.

we are not even aware of the divisions and conflicts among the various sects and assume that their is one ummah.

in our ignorance of the ugly realities, we pretend that the 'religion' can be equated to our own beliefs and cultures and ignore history and current realities at our peril.

hisrotically Islam gloried in the gory days of conquest where it destroyed older and cultures and enslaved numerous countries till it was defeated by western expansions anger and jealous persists over time and is a convenient channel to target Islamic failings and blame anyone else other tham the Muslim countries themselves for the Muslim malaise.

we try and use platitudinous panaceas which, based on erroneous christian and western philosophical assumptions cannot be applied equally to an ideology whose underlying message can never coexist with infidel views in the 'abode of war'-the unconquered non-muslim lands which are viewed with greed and jealousy, ever since the time of the self proclaimed last prophet.

until we do so, we will have to be confused by the 'moderate'(?) muslims protest in self righteousness against any criticism, however well-based while ignoring the atrocities prevalent in their ancient, tribal fatherlands.

with trepidation.

Excellent article Bashir. I admire your bravery.

(I'm sorry I've got on this thread a little late, have been meaning to post for a couple of days. I hope TRTL is still following the thread.)

Regarding TRTL's comment that the response to Islamic Fundamentalism in our own country has been a similar closing of the ranks, a "with us or against us" approach; I think this is a little simplistic and misses the point of what the conservative side of the culture war is trying to do.

There's nothing wrong with critical evaluation. But what perturbs many policy makers and ordinary Australians, (especially in the context of the current challenge,) is the tendency of Critical Theory to view the failings the West, past and present, as so reprehensible that they destroy the legitimacy of our institutions and our values.

Instead of viewing our past as a series of victories in the quest to spread enfranchisement to all sectors of our community and peoples across the globe, the fact that we could have been so barbaric in the first place is perceived as a fatal blow to our history and our sense of self. Thus, the culture war is not about self-censorship. It is about challenging the Revisionist versions of history which gained hegemony during the 70's, 80's and 90's, in order to re-instill a sense of pride in who we are.

Dozer - I've no problem with having pride in who we are. By the same token, I wouldn't like us to try and gloss over the less attractive parts of our history.

The thing is - I think we already do have plenty of pride. Kids sing the national anthems in school just about every day.
We go nuts for our sporting teams.
Yes, this is the most basic level of pride, but it's a common denominator most can share.

There is an oversimplification of both sides of this debate. If you voice concern over these alleged 'culture wars' you're accused of being one of the aforementioned relativists, or one of the 'latte' set.

Fair enough, the conservative side cops their own simplifications. But there is a strong element of the 'us v them' in this debate, and it is applied much too quickly.