It was never my intent that the thread take this turn, become little more than racist.
The subject for me at least was too important, just how much do we not say if it may upset some?
Can we talk about concerns we have without being racist? maybe the fact is we are racist?
And just maybe some who have in the past and now often called those of us who question them racist are too racists.
I know this much, my country is multi cultural, it worked for most, who can not look with pride at third generation kids from all over Europe the world in fact and not know it worked?
But dream no dreams, it is not sure in any way it will always work.
The freedom most under threat is our freedom of speech, to say what we think, yet in some hands it is a dangerous freedom.

Belly
You raised freedom of speech. The truth is if anybody states the facts they are tagged racist.
So be it.
You cant have one foot in each camp.

Last night I watched a doc on TV about A Muslim group in Sydney.
You should of seen their attitude because they built a youth center in the WRONG zoning!]

Oh my God how they carried on!
Calling us! racist. Saying the whole world was against them
When in truth the council was just following the law.

How arrogant of them to expect the council to CHANGE the Law for them just because they are Muslims.

On and on this guy raved. A total lunny.
He said the whole world was against Muslims and they had to fight.
Great education for the youth.

Perhaps if he had followed the law and the council requirments BEFORE building the center they wouldnt have had this problem
They are racist against us and rude to us.
They do not respect our laws our councils our people and that Belly is a fact.

If WE said what they said about US on TV there would be hell to pay.
WE the Australian public MUST not allow Muslims to bully us and bully our councils because there is ONE law for All and all must obey

I think that the village idiot's most recent post above is pretty fair indication that we are free to say pretty much whatever hateful and bigoted crap we like.

However, the corollary is that we are also free to call such drivel the racist nonsense that it is. Some snivelling racists bleat that identifying them as such somehow threatens freedom of speech, but this is sophistry at best.

Openly discussing inconvenient truths like racism is the epitome of free speech.

TarynW says "The truth is if anybody states the facts they are tagged racist."

This is false premise leading to an invalid argument.

Jolanda's appraisal is more logical and CJ is right on the button.

People who lack self-confidence or self-esteem feel threatened by things or people they don't understand. They become inwardly scared and defensive, if not pathologically neurotic. Not healthy, people.

Belly, regardless of your intent (or Freudian slip), you have opened a thread that challenges us all, and is a red flag to a bull as far as the racist is concerned.

CJ,

The problem as many of us see it, is that the freedom to speak the truth without being vilified is unevenly distributed. Your spiteful response to TarynW post totally ignores the valid point she raises.

The problem with the tag ‘racist’ is that it has become a wedge for political gain. To my mind a racist is a person who prejudges another based upon his/her racial background. Instead it is used by many, including the soft left morons, to denote a person who criticizes any non white person or group. This is an unfortunate by-product of the politically correct movement which the soft lefters so successfully introduced. It is never racist to tell the truth, however hurtful someone or some group may find it.

Many Muslims believe that they don’t need to fit into our society, that in fact we should change to accommodate them. The situation at the Community centre is but one example.

This is multiculturalism at work. I acknowlege that there are many hard working muslims who fit in very well with our way of life. But when you tell migrants that they needn’t change their way of life in order to migrate here, it is inevitable that you will get communities with differing expectations. Someone has to compromise in that situation and it is invariably US. Well many Australians are sick and tired of having to modify their behaviour so that new arrivals don’t have to. That is, many people believe that it is a new arrivals duty to fit in with their host culture, not the other way around. Unfortunately we are already a long way down this absurd multiculturalist path and turning it around is going to be difficult.

So my response to the barely literate TarynW's hateful post was spiteful, while her description of respected Muslim youth worker Fadi Rahman as " A total lunny (sic)" was not? What valid point did she raise exactly?

That it's somehow a racist act for young Muslims to enagage in community-based self-help as an alternative to violence in the wake of the racist Cronulla riots? That it's not OK for them to resist via legal avenues the bureaucratic obstructionism of an antagonistic local council?

Paul.L: "Many Muslims believe that they don’t need to fit into our society, that in fact we should change to accommodate them. The situation at the Community centre is but one example."

Rubbish. The youth club portrayed in the film is exactly the kind of group that has helped integrate disadvantaged kids into Australian communities throughout our history.

'Temple of Dreams' (2007) Synopsis:

"Fadi Rahman runs the self-funded ICRA Youth Centre, operating out of a converted Masonic Temple in the heart of Sydney’s Muslim community. When the Cronulla riots take place in December 2005, Fadi realises the need to accelerate and increase the programmes for Muslim youth made possible by ICRA. In the meantime, the local council has ruled that the location of the Youth Centre contravenes zoning regulations. The film follows Fadi and his team of dedicated volunteers for over 18 months. A couple of ambitious youth projects are successfully realised, while in the background the fight to retain the Centre’s premises goes on".

Full description plus trailers at:

http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/temple-dreams/