>>Dear Pericles, you would have more cred if you looked at articles written by those on the website, rather than simply cutting and pasting the most salubrious and illiterate "comment" from some poster<<

You still don't understand, do you?

Every hate-inspired movement creates its own truths, so that it can pretend that it has pure motives at heart. Take a look at the Ku Klux Klan website. http://www.kkk.com/

[Intriguingly, it only works with Internet Explorer. I guess being in league with the devil and being in league with Microsoft are not that far apart after all]

Their home page announces they are "Bringing a Message of Hope and Deliverance to White Christian America! A Message of Love NOT Hate!" (The exclamation points are theirs)

I'll pass quietly over their claims to Christianity, because that isn't my point. People like this post highly erudite disquisitions on the "rightness" and "justice" of their cause, but normal people see it as pure dissembling. Their mission is hatred of "the other", and they deploy every weapon at their disposal.

They particularly like well-meaning Christians with firm views on non-Christians.

But as far as my "cred" is concerned, in pointing out one of the less well-read members of the forum, I was simply recalling an old song, the first verse of which contains this highly relevant observation:

"'You can tell a man that boozes by the company he chooses',
Then the pig got up and slowly walked away."

[The Famous Pig Song: Clarke Van Ness, music by F. Henri Klickmann]

Boaz,

You said “F.H. did I post anything untrue?”

The issue is all your comments about Islam in intentional ‘half-truth’ which ends up being worse than a full lie.

Take the stance on Christians as per your above quote. The missing half truth in your statement is across parts 2, 3 and 4: That there are many good believers among Christians and Jews and Sabeans and that all good believers should have no fear on judgement day.

Islamic theology is almost identical to Judaism on strict monotheism (ie God is one, shall not make images of God, to love only God, etc)
You are barking up the wrong tree by asking either theology to accept or bless the three in one approach. You want to be a true follower of Judaism or Abraham’s faith you have a duty to examine your theories. If it makes sense to you that’s great live with it and don’t seek assurances from others.
The Quran doesn't hate anyone but merely describes the right theology and what good believers are and should be doing.
Do you see Muslims asking Christians to confirm that monotheism is good? We don’t care. Worship whichever way you like it’s your life. Just let us be in peace.

Now, please respect eveyone else on this forum and stick to the topic..

Peace,

Hardy and Arjay,

Hate is a pretty stong term and I think you will find very little hatred of muslims. You will find dislike and if you question further you find this is dislike of Lebanese muslims. Lebanese are, by far, the most populas of the muslims in Aus, so we encounter more of them than other nationalities.

The reason for this dislike of "Lebs" is because of their rude and offensive attitudes and behaviour, especially towards women. There is an arrogance and beligerance that prevents them from becoming part of our society. This attitude is cultural and is past from one generation to the next. It is not restricted to gangs of youths either. Older men seem to have the same attitudes.

I have not seen or heard many bad reports in relation to muslims of other nationalities. Nor any bad reports of conduct by Lebanese that are not muslim. Unfortunitatly the poor reputation of the Lebs rubs off on other groups of muslims.

The point is that this group are not suited to our society. There is not hatred involved from our side, it is simply a recognition of cultural incompatability. Mostly these people are Aus citizens, so we are stuck with what we have, but why do we persist in compounding the problem by allowing more of this group into the country.

The lebs seem to have utter disdain for every aspect of our society, so why we continue to allow them here is a good question and why they continue to want to come here is another question.

Dear Banjo

Thanks for your correction but I don't see any difference between Hate and Dislike. Many times dislikes can result in hatered. If you were sensitive enough then the best way to influence the lebs will not to dislike them but to love them. Accept them and then they will begin to accept you aswell. Remember two approaching forces result in collision. I think my best opinion is that the Aussies were hereditary born to hate the lebs as Banjo said it was passed from ancestors.

The custom and tradition passed will always cause overlooks and neglegence to good and positive solutions to solving the whole issues between the Aussies and the Lebs muslim. Iam neither aussie nor a muslim just an interested person from another country But Iam a Christian.

Arjay: Surely we’re stuck with the contents of the various religious scriptures. Bearing in mind how each group regards its scriptures, there’s really no point asking them to remove passages.

What they should be doing, though, is looking at their scriptures closely and even critically. This goes on all the time in many Jewish and Xian circles. I think historically it used to happen in Islam, but that it stopped happening (Fellow Human, do you know anything about this?).

And I agree with your next point: belonging to a religion should not excuse a breach of the peace; the law has been too “hands-off” religion for a long time.

Fellow Human & Boaz, You both seem to be right about the Qur'an: it contains an amazing mixture of material, from the beautiful to the frightening and disgraceful. We’re stuck with that, I think. So, the question is “What do we DO?” The startup answer is, “Brainstorm for ways of living peacefully together”, and I still think being better acquainted is a good place to start. Putting theology aside, we would find a lot that we agree about. Or, we could at least agree to disagree: this is compatible with respect and peace. The present standoff - just glaring at each other across no man's land - is not conducive to peace.

By the way, I don't mean to make it sound easy.

BTW Boaz, I want to make sure you saw my post of Tuesday, 24 April 2007 8:32:35 PM from the “Jesus Guilty!”, a Slice of Roman Talkback string.

Pax,