BushBasher - I'm not trying to score points but am beginning to find that having a reasonable discussion with you can be a tedious exercise.

Anyway, you mention that my criticisms of David Chibo seem off the point. Off the point of what? The comments that end up here surely are allowed to have some relevance to the actual article ... are they not?

Anyway, getting back to the topic of Nalliah and Hilali, what is conveniently overlooked in Chibo's article is the fact that Danny Nalliah has been taken to court in Victoria over his alleged vilification of Muslims. If, as David Chibo claims, that there has been an unparalleled "cultural battle waged using the world’s media against the Middle Easterners and Islam", then why was the Islamic Council of Victoria able to take action against Danny Nalliah, Daniel Scot and the Catch the Fire Ministries under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act? And why also was the action of the Islamic Council supported by the the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission of the Catholic Archdiocese and the Justice and International Mission Unit of the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania?

Also if you read the Brisbane Times article you will see references to Pentecostal, the Bible, books in the Bible and several mentions of Nalliah as a pastor. All of these clearly identify him as some kind of Christian. However I feel certain that even if The Australian article only mentioned Hilaly as an imam, or a mufti, and made only references to the Koran or suras and none to "Muslim" per se, that Chibo would probably still find something Orientalist about it.

enough for me. as i said, i don't think we're disagreeing strongly on anything. there's no point in grumpily continuing with the marginalia.

In the light of David Chibo's thesis of showing how the "Orientalism framework functions" by comparing two previous newspaper reports, I wonder what he would make of today's reporting in The Australian. Once again, Sheik Hilali is making news but there is only one mention of the word Muslim in the entire article and that was to quote from Shawky Kassir, who is the president of the Lebanese Muslim Association. The article itself is titled, "Hilali kicks door, blames vandals".

Maybe The Australian is just reporting that Hilali is a creep, rather than seeking to denigrate all Middle Easterners and Muslims?