GREG says:

"Scholars such as Harvard University's Ali Asani have written eloquently about the fact that the foundation document of Islam, the Koran, stresses tolerance and unity."

Greg.. I don't know who needs therapy more, me for having to put up with your clear and misguided representation of Islam, or you, for being so devoid of careful reading ability that you would even post such garbage and think people are so brainless as to take it as true.

TOLERANCE and UNITY.

Quran 9:29 "Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low."

Quran 9:30

"And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!"

Now Greg, did you see those tolerant words ? "MAY ALLAH DESTROYYYYYY THEM" who ? Christians and Jews!

You are either willfully (and maliciously) misrepresenting Islam, which is an unconscienable act, when doing so to the OBJECTS of this religious hatred contained in the above verses, (-but something I would expect from a "lawyer" who seems to care more about winning cases than truth and morality) or.. you are simply brain damaged and unable to read a John and Betty primer for kindy, let alone the plain language of the Quran.

I can’t believe all the bigoted, paranoid rubbish in this forum!!

Then again … yes, I can. Islamphobia is all the rage these days. The Murdoch press in Australia, in particular, has given it a chilling respectability – enough to blind us to all its hypocrisies.

Sure, there are some horrible aspects to Islam. But that never seems to stop the Australian Cricket Board from sending our cricket team to Pakistan – unlike South Africa in the past or Zimbabwe in the present. Nor did it stop the Americans from carefully nurturing the Pakistan dictatorship’s nuclear ambitions, or its development of nuclear weapons, in blatant contempt for the NPT – unlike Iran. Nor has any Western country suggested an embargo against Pakistan for not doing enough to stop the terrorist training camps within its borders.

Nor has it ever stopped us from turning a blind eye to Indonesia’s human rights excesses, or Malaysia’s tolerance of polygamy, or Jordan’s record of sororacide. Nor does it stop the West’s palsy, walsy cosying up to that most fundamentalist of Islamic states, Saudi Arabia, despite its embarrassing over-representation among the 911 hijackers. Ditto Egypt. Nor did it stop us from taking the Muslim side in the Balkan conflict in opposition to that upstart Christian leftie, Milosevic – despite roughly equal genocidal excesses on both sides.

When it comes to the cynical pursuit of Western interests – Islamic fundamentalism is all relative. Islamic fundamentalists are OK, as long as they are OUR Islamic fundamentalists

In the Wall Street Journal, Tawfiq Hamid tells his fellow Muslims a few home truths about ‘Islamophobia’ Read it at Melanie Phippips blog.
Part of the comnet made: 'It is well past time that Muslims cease using the charge of ‘Islamophobia’ as a tool to intimidate and blackmail those who speak up against (..) those who rightly criticize current Islamic practices and preachings. Instead, Muslims must engage in honest and humble introspection. Muslims should–must–develop strategies to rescue our religion by combating the tyranny of Salafi Islam and its dreadful consequences' http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/?p=1535

the full outrage of Barn's original post has just struck me...
how dare you!
a woman has had her friend and collegue viciously murdered by someone in the name of an imaginary daddy-spirit in the sky and his magic book, who capped his monstrous act by skewering his prone and dying victim with a dispicably ugly letter, with macabre style, pinning it to the poor man's heaving chest,
and you have the brutish insensitivity and slavish adherence to the groupthink of political correctness to accuse her of somehow parading her need for protection....accusing her, essentially, of posing...

i'm aghast at the vileness of your opportunistic, ignominious point-scoring in such horrible circumstances....

rufus

This is by far the funniest thing in the whole Islamic debate: Ayaan Hirsi Ali being veted by the right and conservatives!

Ayaan is a 'queue jumper' par excellence. She can show the poor slobs who come on rickety boats to Australia a thing or two!

She left Somalia age 7 and lived in Kenya till arriving in Holland. She lied about her name, age and country of origin or that she had valid travel documents. Ayaan was on her way to Canada, legally, with airplane ticket, paid for by her husband. Her husband came to the Netherlands where they divorced.

She was working as a translator in Nairobi for the UNHCR before she left to go to Canada. On the way she stopped over in Germany to see some rellies and decided to go to the Netherlands and seek asylum. It was pretty well known that the Dutch are a bit of a push-over where paperless asylum seekers are concerned.

She was a member of the Labour party for a number of years, till she was offered nomination by a liberal party. She switched over and was elected. She went from a left wing party to a centre-right party. Cheryl Kernot, that's how you switch parties and live to do world wide tours.

She made a low budget movie with Theo van Gogh, called 'Submission' which gave her notoriety and got van Gogh murdered. Theo van Gogh was an anarchist. Hated the royal family, the whole idea of a monarchy. He was no pin up boy for the conservatives!

It was not the 'Left-wing' who outed her and caused the ruckus, but from within her own conservative party. It caused a furore! It caused the government to collapse through a vote of no confidence by another liberal party in coalition with the government.

She still has her Dutch nationality by the way. She is a very intelligent woman, quite beautiful and glows with attention. She is articulate and knows what the crowd wants, enjoy the performance!

Good on you Evonne

Argue the character of this woman instead of the facts about Islam. You write 'She is a very intelligent woman, quite beautiful and glows with attention. She is articulate and knows what the crowd wants, enjoy the performance!' Is this a crime? Would you rather she had hairy armpits and a tea towel over her head?