YES: May we All Sing with the WHO - The WHO recognise the need to invest in health and recovery.

Preventing Disease and promoting good health + wellbeing works hand in hand when we try.

We need to DO more together through community health to reduce the health impacts of discrimination on our culturally diverse communities.

Too many people get hurt.

ie: Real stories of Suicide - Bullying - Child abuse + poverty (with more Basic Needs). Much of this is preventable.

http://www.miacat.com/
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Todd, it is interesting to note how Selma was unsettled by a security check. Floating around the net at the moment is a photograph of a nun being 'frisked' by a female security guard/police officer. The female doing the search is wearing the hijab. The nun didn't engage in any foot-stamping nor did she display any indignation. She has not rushed to the local news outlet with her story. Her story isn't playing on CNN or Fox or any other news outlet. She hasn't contacted her local representative nor has she rushed to her local ethnic H/Qs with her story.

Tell Selma that's how you deal with security checks.

Todds article is typical of the far left who dominate the health professions. Whether Selma likes it or not virtually all terrorists today are of Islamic background.

I am not suggesting its ok to discriminate against these people, merely that being searched is not an act of discrimination.

There is a world of difference between being the subject of a hate attack/being vilified and being searched by security or the police.

I listened to Hazem El Mazri on TV last night try to explain why he wouldn’t supply police with his ID when he was asked for it. He felt he was being asked because he was a Muslim. So What? It’s such a small inconvenience and it’s about making us all safer. This is the victim mentality creeping into the Muslim community and health care professionals like Todd are making things worse.

If we can’t associate Mulims with Islamic terrorism then political correctness has finally gone MAD. Should we search five non muslims people for every Muslim we search? Should we not search people at all?

How many non Muslim terrorists threaten Australia today?

If Muslims suffer from increased police attention then I am sorry for that, but there is nothing which can be responsibly done about it. When Islamic terror goes away so will the searches.

As for Aborigines, to pretend that their biggest problem is racism is to pander to those who hold the black armband view of history. Aboriginal communities suffer in many areas, including health, education, employment, housing and law and order.

Today racism is the catchcry for every difficulty the aboriginal communities face. Is it racism to jail a violent alcoholic who regularly beats his wife? Because that’s what happens. I’ve seen it in court. It’s the racist police who are at fault, not the man himself.

The lefts failed experiment in self determination has shown that they care more about appearances than results. Many lefties would prefer to ignore child abuse than be called a racist. Even if the claim of racism was completely hollow.

Todd reports:

She is startled and jumps as a yobbo driving past yells out “go home you terrorist slut”. Born in Australia of Turkish background, she shrugs her shoulders but she is angry and irritated.

Later, the same day, as she arrives at St Vincent’s Hospital for her emergency medicine class, a security guard suspiciously checks her bag. Her heart feels like lead and she fights back the tears.

She is ANGRY? ... "Angry" is how you feel when the Hijab, which symbolizes Islam...which includes:

-Institutionalized domestic violence (Surah 4:34)
-Marriage and sex with pre-pubescent children (65:4)
-The Racist CURSING and calling for destruction of Jews and Christians (9:30)
-The call for violent aggression to establish the rule of Islam in all the world (9:29)

...is worn 'in our faces' by those who feel they have a right to do so.
I guess its all ok:

-Swastika
-Hijab
-long fringes and black clothes.

and before any bright spark races up waving their hand "Sir..please sir.. Boaz is being selective" I can back every statement made above with documented evidence.
So..in short THAT is the grounds for ANGER... The Nun story says it all...

Yes.. racism.. intolerance...are bad.. they are ESPECIALLY bad when those who would seek to highlight child abuse, domestic violence and terrorism are not 'tolerated'.
In fact... such is the absolute epitomy of INtolerance.

The exist in the (UN)EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION.. in the Judiciary, in racist lobby groups...

The simplest way to avoid the tears about racist slurrs etc... is for all of us to drop our racist ideas about other people.

There is nothing 'racist' about raising awareness of institutionalized justification of abuse whehter it be about elements of Orthodox Judaism.. Islam...Children of God... or even endemic (though not sanctioned by any holy book) molestation of children by Priests.

There are limits to tolerance.... we cannot tolerate those who would remove our freedom.

Boaz, your "defence" against being described as a whack-a-mozzie rabble-rouser has always been that you attack the religion, but not the individual.

Here is a classic example of why I don't believe you.

>>She is ANGRY? ... "Angry" is how you feel when the Hijab, which symbolizes Islam which includes:-Institutionalized domestic violence (Surah 4:34)-Marriage and sex with pre-pubescent children (65:4)-The Racist CURSING and calling for destruction of Jews and Christians (9:30)-The call for violent aggression to establish the rule of Islam in all the world (9:29) ... is worn 'in our faces' by those who feel they have a right to do so.<<

You have taken your views on the religion as a whole - which, by the way, are in themselves highly selective and extremely contentious - and applied them to an individual.

You are disdainful that she should feel anger at her treatment, and instead turn this into your own "anger" that she should dare to dress to conform to her religious beliefs.

Where is the evidence that this person is an extremist, or a terrorist?

Only last Sunday you protested:

>>Perilous...where the heck have you been for the past 3 yrs.. that has ALWAYS been my position on Muslims. I have never condemned ALL Muslims.. I have condemned "Islam".. in the full knowledge that not all Muslims have the same understanding... of their own faith...and I have specifically singled out 'RADICAL' Muslims for 'special treatment'..... I think I have the runs on the board here..<<

Runs on the board? You most certainly have. This is typical of your doublespeak, Boaz, that on the one hand you make a barefaced - and patently self-delusional - statement such as this, and on the other pretend "anger" against an individual.

Are you beginning to get the picture why I feel it is necessary to point out to you that this kind of behaviour, as well as being extraordinarily impolite, is mendacious, self-aggrandizing and inflammatory?

Paul.L: "Should we not search people at all?"

I think that targeted, or even random, searches of people who are going about their daily business should be conducted more judiciously than appears to be the common practice of late. For example, security searches at airports are something that I (grudgingly) put up with because of the demonstrated evdence from overseas that terrorists have used aeroplanes to conduct attacks.

However, a boofheaded goon searching a student attending a class at a public hospital, or cops picking on a couple of blokes of "middle-eastern appearance" walking down the street, seem to me to be clearly abuses of civil liberties. How many terrorists have targeted public hospitals or suburban Sydney streets?

Boazy: "'Angry' is how you feel when the Hijab, which symbolizes Islam... ...is worn 'in our faces' by those who feel they have a right to do so."

Speak for yourself, Bozo. I certainly don't feel angry when I see someone wearing a hijab - or a 'goth' wearing their distinctive attire. I think that your "anger" in this situation is an affectation designed to disguise the true root of your intolerance of difference, i.e. fear.

"There are limits to tolerance.... we cannot tolerate those who would remove our freedom"

For once I agree with you, except that I don't see hijab-wearing women and 'goths' removing my freedom - rather it's an expression of their own freedom to wear what they like. This is a basic freedom that I take for granted in Australia, or at least I used to. That was before our governments, police and security apparatuses bought into the wholesale xenophobic paranoia associated with the so-called "war on terror".

I also agree that religious extremists hould not be allowed to restrict the freedoms of others according to the dictates of their supernatural beliefs. However, I would also include Christian extremists like Boazy who want to foist their religiously derived morals and ethics on the reat of us.

CJ

This is pandering. Every time I go to the airport I am pulled aside and explosives tested and sometimes patted down with the metal detector wand. I do not see this as a slur. I see it as an unfortunate sign of our times.

People like you and the author Todd are reinforcing some Muslims claims that they are being racially abused. This is pandering to the victim mentality and no good will come of it.

You clearly have no idea of how policing actually works. To suggest that the only way to catch terrorists is to stake out airports is patently ridiculous. The number of successful arrests of criminals in general, for traffic infringements or just random ID checking, shows the efficacy of this method. It makes criminals/terrorists far less secure when they see police because they know there is the possibility of being uncovered. In turn this makes them easier to spot.

Either you are suggesting that all the police are racists, in which case I’ll have nothing more to say to you on this subject as you are clearly prejudiced yourself, OR the police are checking more people of Middle Eastern appearance because that is the community of people in which the terrorists hide. How many white suicide bombers do you know?

If the threat came from people of Caucasian background I would feel exactly the same way. What point would there be in searching equal numbers of black people if all our terrorists were white?

How is it a threat to anyone’s civil liberties to be asked to show their identification?

What most irks me are the ignorant soft left who fight for women’s rights in this country yet at the same time support orthodox Islam. Orthodox Islam declares that a woman is worth only half of a man. And you only have to look to see that this idea is fully implemented in most Islamic countries. The hypocrisy is astounding.
But of course the soft left is far too frightened of being labelled politically incorrect to do anything about it.

Paul.L: "Either you are suggesting that all the police are racists..."

No, of course they're not - but at least some certainly are. As for private security guards (e.g. in hospitals), I expect that the percentage is somewhat higher, given that recruitment and training standards are not as high as for real police.

"OR the police are checking more people of Middle Eastern appearance because that is the community of people in which the terrorists hide."

You're not seriously suggesting that El Masri and his mate were stopped by the police because they were potential terrorists, or that Selma was searched in a hospital because she was a potential terrorist? How many suicide bombers of any ethnicity has Australia experienced?

"How is it a threat to anyone’s civil liberties to be asked to show their identification?"

Given that there is no legal requirement to carry identification under normal circumstances in Australia, the very act of demanding ID from people going about their lawful business is a breach of the common law rights that law abiding citizens have to privacy, and to be able to walk the streets unmolested by the State.

For the record, I'm not a supporter of Islam - nor of any other religion.

"People like you and the author Todd are reinforcing some Muslims claims that they are being racially abused. This is pandering to the victim mentality and no good will come of it."

Nonsense, it is the discriminatory infringement of people's civil liberties that give rise to such perceptions. Indeed, I can't think of a better way of alienating particular sectors of society than by subjecting them to such treatment on the basis of their perceived ethnicity or religion.

Well Todd,what are you going to do about intellectualism where by the genetic elite in our society shun,relegate the less able to menial chores and often social isolation?

Legislation solves nothing.Too much change the alienates our culture causes more problems than does the colour of people's skin.

Well said Todd! The issues around racism in Australia need to be exposed again and again and again.

And it is not just rednecks who are a problem - as great perhaps worse is the institutional racism that exists in this country. For example in our health services. If any other group than Aboriginal people had such poor health status - a life expectancy of 17 years less than other Australians - there would be an absolute outcry.

But what do we get from our federal minister for health Tony Abbott? Fuel for rhe racist fire. He is quoted as saying about Aboriginal people: "There seems to be an inordinate amount of time taken up with funerals and ceremonies." And again: ”Why not get them out shooting the camels," he said. "It gives them something they would love to do and it beats petrol sniffing."

I presented these quotes back to him when we shared a platform at a conference earlier this year. No remorse ... he smirked.

Shame on you Minister Abbott ... But good on you Todd for speaking up!

Gavin Mooney

It gives me a tremendous sense of relief that we have professionals, such as Todd and Gavin, using their positions to speak up for those less able to defend themselves in this ugly phase Australia is going through.

It particularly gives me relief when we have our current Federal Government Ministers, using their positions, to indulge in their discriminatory beliefs, and in no way concerned about showing it.