Peppy, Leigh didn't say that about Muslims or Islam and you took a small portion to define intent. Try it again. It is a valid statement given the authors assertion that, "Once meaningful policies are implemented, we can let the migration process run its course, and we will see Australian Muslims, like the Irish, German, Italian, Greek, Vietnamese and Chinese before them, become another colourful tile in the modern Australian mosaic.".

And so the ignorance continues. This author compares a religion (Islam) with nationalities (Irish, German, Italian, Greek, Vietnamese and Chinese).

Peppy note the "brackets" around the word (Islam) and (Irish, German, Italian, Greek, Vietnamese and Chinese). Which one of these does not equal the other? The racist label doesn't fit.

I think and hope Imran is right. Australia was probably the first modern country to treat Jews as equal, even to giving state grants to establish synagogues.

We have always had this anti establishment laid back approach and this rubs off on the immigrants. Problem is that we know little about Islam. But just wait for understanding to grow. But the governmebt could be a lot more helpful.

It is difficult to decide which of the three 'peoples of the book' are doing the most damage and pose the greatest threat to Australian society via their respective fundamentalist dogmas - the twelth century crap known as islam, the 'christ will come again and save us all' crap exemplified by the fundamentalist american style bible-bashing nonsense espoused by (among many others) most of the Howard cabinet, or the 'god gave us Palestine and to hell with the Palestinians' jewish zionist movement. There is no chance whatsoever of these three disparate and mutually exclusive 'faiths' ever living together in on-going harmony - the best we can hope for is a very uneasy stalemate based on economic expediency. Peace and universal prosperity will only come, if at all, when everyone over the age of ten comes to realise that not only is there no Santa Claus, there is no god of any description at all. Our only hope is a humanistic realisation that we are alone in the universe. It is up to us. Even the planet itself is starting to give up on us.

Logic. 'State Grants' to establish synagoques(or_churches)_is:

a) Illegal.
b) Unconstitutional.

In my humble view.

The day that the State has to fork out to enable Christians to buid a place of Worship is the day they need to do some SERIOUS naval gazing and reflection on their faith.

The Article.
"Because opening the doors would mean having to work next to Muslims, live next to Muslims, or God forbid, even allow our daughters to marry Muslims."

SHOW ME...Sheikh Omran or Wassim Dourhi standing up and giving a media interview where they say "We Muslims are quite happy for our daughters to marry you infidel Australians" and I might be more amenable to that quote.

And of course...this IS...the problem. Muslim 'people' (like Peppy and Fellow Human and Irfy) can of course integrate on the social level. No drama.....

BUT and its a big almighty but.. WASSIM DOURHI and SHEIKH OMRAN and MANY like them, have different views. They are working towards SHARIA LAW for Australia. Make no mistake.

THE CORE of the PROBLEM is not the incredibly shallow and ininformed "Oh.. now its the 'Muslims' turn" (as opposed to the 'wogs and daigos and chinks' etc)

THE CORE..is.. the inherrent animosity of Islam to all things Un Islamic. It is the fundamental aggressive, discriminatory, and violent aspect of the faith itself 'in regard to Christianity, Judaism and esPECially 'idolatrous' faiths like Hinduism and Buddhism.

Sure..Peppy is not going to run down to Springvale and trash the Pagoda. Nor will F.H. race up to the Hindu temple and firebomb it, but some OTHERS might. If not now....later if they ever get power.

HOW DO WE KNOW THIS? Let me recite my favorite 'proof text'...again.

Quran 9:30 "Jews believe Uzair is son of Allah, Christians believe the Messiah is Son of Allah, MAY ALLAH DESTROY THEM"

Now..contextually these 'revelations' came at the time of a BATTLE. So....

Question: who is going to 'do' the destroying?
Answer: "Mohammad and his army"

Question DID he carry this out?
ANSWER: Ask the Jews of the BanU Qurayza tribe..oops..no, you can't they are ALL DEAD.

As if to underscore the inimicitious nature of muslim migration to Australia the author tells us that an Issues Deliberation Australia (IDA) forum was held to discuss Muslims and non-Muslims in Australia. What if an IDA was held to discuss Christians and non-Christians in Australia. It would have been pointed out by muslims that such a theme would not be inclusive. And why hasn’t it dawned on the author that no such IDA was needed to settle the Spanish, Estonian, Maltese, Indian and other communities in Australia. Also, if the author is concerned about a lack of policies to address the concerns of Australian muslims doesn’t it further highlight how unprepared muslims are as a migrant group.

The author offers us Dr Kevin Dunn, an expert on racism in Australia, as the arbiter on racism. However, two people who might inform Dunn are Tiffen and Gittins who presented empirical evidence on racism in their book ‘How Australia Compares’. Their book includes the result of a survey that asked Australians about what sort of neighbours were undesirable. The respondent percentages were: drug addicts 74, heavy drinkers 60, people with a criminal record 45, emotionally unstable 38, and immigrants and people from a different race 5. Only 5%; now how unhelpful is that in furthering Dr Dunn’s argument.

Rather than add to the annual AUD$7.2 billion multicultural bill by creating more employment programs, skills development programs etc, muslims should hold their own IDA and invite members of the Italian community and Maltese community and other communities and ask them how they integrated.

The author talks about introducing a law to prevent discrimination on the basis of religion. Under that law the Qur’an might be banned because muslims discriminate against their own. Sura (2:282) - "And call to witness, from among your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not found then a man and two women.

I think the IDA mentioned by the author seems more like Alice in Wonderland’s Tea Party. In allowing muslims to migrate to Australia, our governments have sowed dragon’s teeth

Imran Lum (Chinese_Muslim?) also says:

"There is no doubt that the stereotyping of all Australian Muslims in the media and public domain as fanatics and terrorists because of the misguided actions of a few can lead to unnecessary prejudices and misconceptions."

Correct.. but IT DOES NOT HAPPEN and to suggest it does is simply pandering to the 'victim' mentality and insults our non Muslim intelligence, and seems to be just 'massaging the community' for another agenda.

VILIFICATION LAWS have done nothing to help Victoria. They simply ramped UP the level of interfaith animosity and resulted in spy verses spy of "Christians" going to Mosques to 'catch them out'.

In any case, those laws do not stop the likes of myself from engaging in very strong discussions about Islam.

IF...we use those laws as they stand, we can (and might) seek to have the Quran and Hadith banned on the grounds that they SPECIFICALLY and 'BY NAME' curse Christians and Jews.

What the newspapers DO report, is incidents of Muslims allegedly stockpiling explosives in order to do us harm.

The ordinary Australian was not behind the bushes when brains were given out, and he or she asks "If this number of Muslims are (allegedly) prepared to blow the daylights out of us, how many MORE are there out their who simply hate us but don't go to that extent"?

Statistically it would be remiss to think that these are the only 'anti Aussie' Muslims in Australia.

So, to the author, I assume you have a bit of a brain, after all you are a PHD candidate. I recommend you use that brain to look closely at the man you follow... one Mohammad, and ask this "Would a man who is truly of God, claim a revelation which gives himself ALONE a licence for unlimited females to pleasure him(surah 33:50)and (because he knows the chaos which would ensue) then strictly FORBIDS the 'ordinary' believers that same privilege.?

In my view, such a man could not be from the Holy God who has revealed Himself in history and finally (and lastly) in Christ.