Most of what needed to be said has been, but I wish to add a note regarding the article which puzzled me.

Saeed said:

A)
Non religious youth centres are essential to engage youth into sports, volunteering and other positive activities such as arts.

B)
Undoubtedly, if Australian Muslims are to overcome their challenges, they must undertake long-term community development by promoting self-help. But they should not be doing it alone and all levels of government and other communities should also be lending them a hand.

COMMENT:
It seems odd that in "A" above, he says 'Non Religious' which should mean that non just Muslim youth have access, but all.

Then in "B" he says "we" should give "them" a helping hand.

I suggest a much better solution is to seek to blurr the dividing line between communities rather than accentuate it.

There is nothing better to reduce communal friction than personal interaction at a multi ethnic level.

Out of such non sectarian interaction come friendships, respect.. (along with the usual does of some people getting up the nose of others) and out of those can come intermarriage and a reducing of the dividing lines from 'bold' to 'normal'.

A pre-requisite for this ONEness to work, would be the abandonment in the Islamic community of insistence on a non muslim partner becoming Muslim. The viability of this would need to be field tested among communities, and I think the results of such a survey would produce more pessimism than optimism for successful integration.

"WE" 'wasps' and other mainstream Australians regard integration as:

'joining our cultural/religious club'

"THEY" (muslims, Hindus, Chinese etc) may (some may not) view it differently, and in terms of their own socio/cultural/religious values being fully preserved in any intermarriage.

*sigh*... nothing is easy, but it is a worthwhile issue to explore seriously..and as with anything we should to the SWAT analysis, and pay particular attention to the "T" (threats) part, before we become too jolly and enthusiastic that we are on the threshhold of a new social utopian millennium

sharkfin, there you go again trying to control what other women wear. You then claim to be taking an anti-oppressive stance!

Meanwhile, for the rest of you painting the picture of 'backward Muslims' and the 'failures of Islam', I suggest you do some research on the American Muslim success story.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/483/muslim-americans

"one in five Muslims in the UK, France, Germany and Spain earn low incomes compared with the general public, while in the US it's a miniscule two per cent of Muslims who are low income compared to other Americans." http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/asra_nomani/2007/05/after_printing_the_new_pew.html

"Sixty percent of Muslims in the United States own their own homes. Believe it or not, the median income for a Muslim household in America is greater than it is for a non-Muslim household." http://www.slate.com/id/2158114/entry/2158168/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6041929&sc=emaf

I wonder what a good collective noun would be to describe a group of Islamophobes - because, with the exception of strayan, that's what we have here.

A vomit of bigots?
A fruitcake of nutters?
A pustule of xenophobes?
A klan of racists?

Any other suggestions welcome :)

As for this -

Sharkbrain: "The muslim people are a handsome race very much like the Greeks."

Sheer, unabashed racism. You clowns deserve each other.

Nicely put CJ; I was wondering how long this little racist love-in would continue as I was scrolling down the thread!

What do you call people..who are empty of argument but full of abuse (not that its even well thought out abuse.. 'racist' when the issue is about 'religion').. as I've said.. if u blokes want to look like dills.. don't do it so publically..the most sticky mud is that which is thrown by yourselves.

Lets do some math.

1/ If 600 out of 1300 mosques in UK are controlled/run by a radical sect... (thats virtually half) by what criteria then do we define 'moderate' or 'mainstream'? Considering that "Mainstream" could equally apply to the 600 radical mosques as to the 700 non radical.

Now..a thought out answer to that might go well.

2/ If those leading such a movement which controls half the mosques in the UK are openly espousing anti semitic ideas.. Anti Jewish anti Christian..and there speeches are avaiable in full on the net... why do people simply decide to go into 'denial' and play the man rather than the ball when people draw attention to it ?

CONCLUSION.. I suspect that there is a vested interest...a family connection...some closet Muslims.. something like that. Strayan seems quite 'pro Islam' but his very lame (and by Ginxs reasoning 'racist') claim that Muslim Americans are doing better... welllll... what does that have to do with anything?.. I mean..what?

Are you trying to say indirectly that "Muslims are better" than Americans? or non muslim Americans? that is about as racist as it gets and I fully expect a humble apology to non muslim Americans for such outright racism in your next post Strayan.

RECOMMENDATION. Hmmm I know.. engage with the arguments raised in the article.. yep..that would be good. No more cheap empty shots from CJ, Ginx or Strayan.

It doesn't how much you try to put a nice face on it islam is a particularly dangerous kind of nastiness even more stupid than the other religions; or maybe just as stupid. the globe needs to have a line drawn betwen muslim territory and the rest and let the big fight-to-annihalation begin. If someone is so proud to be a 'moderate' muslim why be a muslim at all. religion is all or nothing when it comes down to it. religion is the proof of just how stupid human beings can be.