As a moderate non-Muslim, I have to say that I'm pretty disgusted by the last couple of posts.

Shakira

Wow! This blew me away. So fresh, so matter-of-fact, so eloquent, and sooo unsentimental. It is a rare person these days who can admit to "hate" without any hangups. You Go Girl! Poor Mustafa I say. BUT I am glad you arranged for him to be denied entry here. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Let the poms sort their own mess out.

Did y'all see Martin Amis on Lateline tonight? I have argued for years now that the path to understanding the horror of the Islamist male is through Freud and not through Muhammad or OBL.

Think about it. They are psychosexual loons, who we need to lock out of our societies. Don't worry they'll eventually turn on each other and blow each other to smithereens. Just look at the Palestinians and Iraq. Those who live by the sword...

Poor dears

You must take responsibility for your actions. The culture of Islam as described by the established Islamic nations is one that awaits the will of Allah. Rarely will you get a Muslim to admit that slavery is still the basis of labour in the Islamic states. The labour pool is filled by poorly paid, poorly treated migrants from different countries. They can never be true citizens, and while there are exceptions, the treatment doesn't improve. Of all the calls from Arabs to the west to support a Palestinian state with the promise of peace across the land, no one human being is treated with more contempt than a Palestinian in a Arab State. I personally know a Doctor who fled with his family to Saudi Arabia and the best job he was "allowed" was as a janitor.
Muslims in democratic countries have to work to make money and to feed their families. These people don't come from a culture that respects getting ones hands dirty. They are not a culture that rolls up their sleeves and digs in and gets the job done. This is not a racist comment. It is the nature. It's a put down to their sensibilities and makes them feel less of a man. Many quote how dominate males are in Muslim society and that's true over women but, men have many social striations not easily recognized by the outsider. Until the Muslim male can achieve "boss" status over other Muslim and especially white men he will never feel success as a Muslim man in his society. The every day fellow who comes home at the end of the day absolutely stunned and filthy from head to toe and can wear a smile is his enemy.
It's the difference between a fox and a shark. Some similarities but very different and you don't have to hate one or the other to signify the differences. Here you have to stand on your own two feet. It's part of being free. Freedom is very knew concept to a people who have submitted in every sense of the word.

Arjay,
do you lack all sensibility? there are fine people living on Groote Island, it is no more a terra nullius than mainland Australia was.
As for multiculturalism, of course it fails, because all cultures are derived from religion, and all religions are inherently repressive -- christianity no less than any other.
Only pluralism -- respect for individuals, not groups -- can offer a peaceful and sane society.
get religion our of schools, and out of society, religion should only be practised by consenting adults in private!

Reading through the posts reminded me just how effective story telling is as a rhetorical tool to sway public opinion and convince ordinarily rational people to suspend their judgement.

That is not to detract from the story, however it is a reminder for us all to read then stop and think, making an effort to compare and contrast the information gained with what we already know.

From Muslim families I know in Australia it is a sad but true fact that Oz and Euro women are seen as decadent and easy game. It is a common subject of conversation but only part of an ongoing reaffirmation of beliefs and values ingrained and carried to other places.

That is why the Sheik didn't immediately upset moderates too much - they expected seniors, especially fathers to talk like that. As an 'oldie' and a father, he would go over the top, but so would a Muslim mother. Oz dads and mums say that if their daughters dress like (fill in the blank with a suburb of origin, or person) they could be molested too.

But that is not to excuse the Sheik.

It is hard to leave customs behind and in a strange land customs can easily become more rigid rather than more flexible, that is, differences are strengthened. Maybe, if there is no large grouping to continue to reaffirm the customs, they will fall away in time as elders die off.

I don't think there is a shred of evidence for the hypothesis that young men (but never young women? ;-)) 'turn' or 'go toxic' (?!) and victimise because they lack status. It would be convenient to mend the gulf between feminism and multiculturalism if it were so, but no, the evidence from other migrants all around the world is that both good and bad customs can become more hardwired in and more extreme, in a land where customs are different.

By the way, much as I like to have fun with the English (and they take it good naturedly), they are not racists.

runner: Drrr

The point is; if people spent less time worrying about nothing (i.e. religion), they would have much more time and resources to actually solve humanity's problems - not creating them with blodd fueds about religion. QED.