Liz,
There certainly is prejudice against Muslims in Aus. But if you look closely you will see that the problems here are caused mainly by one group, the Lebanese Muslims. Other Muslim groups/nationalities do not cause many problems.

Unfortunately, the criminal activities and the anti-social actions of the Lebanese Muslims reflect badly on all Muslims. Other Muslim groups are reluctant to point the finger and say " hey, its them not all of us". Why, I know not. Maybe because of religious kinship or because they are fearful of backlash from the Lebanese Muslims.

Until other Muslims do some finger pointing, all Muslims will have to endure the bad reputation caused mainly by the Lebs.

You refered to abuse of Muslim women in public. As far as I can ascertain, this only occurs occasionally and from yobos in passing cars. I do not think it is general. Wheras Lebanese muslim males are generally known to be arrogant, dictatorial, rude and abusive when dealing with female shop assistants, nurses, police, teachers, receptionists, etc. Are you aware that Cronulla beachgoers put up with intimidation and harrasment from Leb gangs for about 10 years before they decided to 'retake' the beach. Sunbathing girls were particularly subject to profane and sexual comments byu these gangs. So your vission may be somewhat blinkered.

I also think it unreasonable to expect that our opinions should not be influenced by overseas events. Terrorist attacks and the Danish cartoons rukus did nothing to enhance Muslim reputations

GINX.....

you said:

"how many? How many BOZO are 'rampaging' 'down our streets'? HOW MANY?"

to which I reply.. "How many do you NEED for my statement to be true?"

You can see for yourself how many.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzxkGL21Ojc

But the point I'm making... is that Muslims are crying 'victim'
Yet it is the radical and aggressive nature of many muslims who actually produce the prejudice. It doesn't happen in a vaccuum.

In fairness to Irf, he has touched on this subject, but not harshly enough to my mind.

Ginx... you might blow a vein in your head there... by expressing the very thing you accuse me of. "hate"..I sense it more in your posts at the moment than any others. Not even Malevolent Morgan comes close to you..and Priceless Pericles seems more focused on pedantry than getting to the root of issues.

You are falling into the same old same old lefty trap.. "If they disagree with us.. THEY HATE US".. well.. that game is getting a bit tiresome..and contributes nothing. If the best you can do is just 'yell' then.. sadly your contribution won't be very valuable here.

Prejudice has many sides.

a) What produces it.
b) It's nature.
c) The inablity of 'prejudiced' people to see it in themsleves. (on both sides of the issue)
d) Is the prejudice justified?

I'd be very prejudiced against people who fuel the drug and pornograpy problems in my country. I'm very prejudiced against those who used military might to feed the Chinese Opium.. the British Crown and the Sasoon family.

So.. is my prejudice 'justifed' in those cases ? I feel it is. It stating such 'hate' ?

All entirely worthy of discussion.

To a hammer, I guess, everything looks like a nail.

Boaz, Ginx asked you "how many" people were out on Sydney streets shouting obscenities against Jews. You responded "How many do you NEED for my statement to be true?"

You proceed to post a YouTube video of a street demonstration in Sydney, over a year ago, as evidence.

Take another look at the footage. Go back to the reports at the time. There were "about 6,000" involved in the march. Considering there are somewhere in the region of 200,000 Lebanese in Sydney, that isn't exactly a massive outpouring of anti-Jewish sentiment.

Let us also remind ourselves that that protest was specifically aimed at the incursions into Lebanon of Israeli troops. About which it was said at the time:

"What Israel has done so far in Lebanon has no forgiveness they have destroyed electrical plants, fuel depots, buildings throughout the city, hospitals, the International Airport. They have chosen the wrong strategies to do the right thing hurting and killing innocent people along the way. Its very easy for the Israeli army to tell or demand for Lebanese civilians to leave their homes and belongings and to be left without anything or to end up as refugees in Syria... Israel is being extremely cruel and unfair with the Lebanese people and their country." http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/50242

I am not making judgements here, simply pointing out that at the time, many people were concerned at what they saw were intemperate acts against Lebanon.

So Ginx is absolutely right. You have once again picked upon an isolated incident, in a relatively rare, and relatively insignificant street march, by a group of people protesting against what they saw as an act of violence in which civilians were the biggest losers, to "prove" that Islam is on the march, and about to declare Sharia law in Burwood, or whatever.

You are constantly deriding others for their lack of concern, Boaz, but you are in danger of becoming something of a Chicken Little caricature yourself, if you maintain this appallingly low standard of "evidence".

Pericles, the biggest Chicken Little here is Irfan Yusuf with his insane conflation of current European politics with the vicious, jack-booted anti-Semitism of the inter-war period in 20th Century Europe.

His last paragraph is particularly appalling. Mr Yusuf states that "the parallels between the rhetoric and attitudes of yesterday's anti-Semitism and today's Muslimphobia are striking". How then would he explain the inconvenient FACT that the tallest still-existing building in New York City - the Empire State building - was lit up in green on October 12th, 2007 to honour the Muslim holiday Eid-al-Fitr, which marked the end of the fasting month of Ramadan?

Were any buildings in 1930s-era Germany ever emblazoned with the Star of David, Mr Yusuf, as a way of honouring that faith? I think not.

Irfan Yusuf also goes on to slander "prominent Jewish voices" who he says "can be found among the chorus of Muslimphobes". Is Mr Yusuf unaware that many Jewish voices have loudly objected to David Horowitz's Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week campaign in the United States? Or don't they exist? Aren't they perhaps, "real Jews"?

Is Mr Yusuf also not aware that a British parliamentary report on anti-Semitism in 2006 found a troubling complacency on university campuses about a rise in harassment of Jewish students. That's right - Jewish students, not Muslims. And three guesses as to the 'group' identity of the people who were largely responsible for this rise in anti-Semitic harassment ... why people from that very same group who want to squeal loudly about Islamophobia.

Pericles, just as moralistic Christian soldiers wake up one day with a penchant for boy bands, so too will Boaz live(or die) to see the Islamist light. Your dogged pursuit of Bo was at first admirable; but take care you do not end up like the CJ-nobody wants to be that virtuous,surely?

There are many rational reasons for being wary of contemporary Islam. Comparisons between antisemitism and what Irfan calls "Muslimophobia" are egregious.

To point out just one difference, unlike the Muslim religious leadership, the Jewish leadership, religious or otherwise, does not seek to impose the Jewish concept of morality on the rest of society. There is no Jewish equivalent of the Muslim attempt to make elements of shariah the law of the land.*

Irfan's comparison between antisemitism and "Muslimo-phobia" would be more convincing if it were not for the rampant antisemitism, homophobia and general fixation on controlling bedroom behaviour and hostility to free speech that pervades contemporary Islam.

This article by James Button in today's Age newspaper says it all.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/escalating-problems-of-tolerance/2007/10/21/1192940899801.html

THE MAIN DANGER WE FACE IS NOT ISLAM PER SE BUT THE REFUSAL OF THE LEFT TO STAND BY THE IDEALS THEY SAY THEY CHAMPION.

*Can anyone seriously deny that the imposition of sharia is part of the agenda of the Muslim religious leadership? If you do you really do not understand Islam.