I also know a Arab Muslim, who wears jeans, etc. She had to flee her country with her son, because her doctor husband divorced her. She told me that her life expectancy, and that of her son, would have been limited if they had stayed. She is undeniably critical of her country, but even with her, I am careful that I may inadvertently give offence.

None of these Muslims are militant in any way - quite the contrary. However, there are definitely topics which are "off limits" - not necessarily Islamic beliefs, but issues - political, social, and cultural. With other friends, such subjects are debated freely, whatever our background, and no offence taken. However, I know I could not do this with my Muslim friends.

Foxy we must always be free to say what we think, without that freedom we are no longer free.
The thread here contains some who seem to want to find something in these Lady's that I can not see.
And there are others that want to highlight the bad as representative of the religion.
The words they used came without promoting, they stand convicted not by us but themselves.
As for the words in that Holy book, they too are there they exist we have no right to remove them.
I see Wasps moving away from religions and in truth hope one day humans will truly debate why we think we are the product of Gods.
Our aim should be to understand we need not kill each other in the name of a fantasy.

there's no shortage of christian nutters. one of them is currently dealing out indiscriminate death in iraq and afghanistan. this is not an aberration. even buddhists have managed to twist their religion into an excuse for murder. the other major religions are much less reticent. it's no use blaming religion, religion is just one of many kinds of banner humans use to organize their struggles against other societies. blame god, for giving us a finite planet and an unlimited urge to procreate.

these particular 'nutters' have found a way to give some meaning to their lives, some brief celebrity to remember in old age. we can't all be on 'big brother'.

Interesting editorial piece in today's (Thursday) Australian.
People may care to look at it.

I deliberately avoided this program because I don't like Islam and I will not listen to people who hide behind yards of cloth, with just their faces showing or, as with one of them, displaying only a pair of glasses through a slit.

So I've no comment on the program itself.

However, the fact that these two silly, perhaps dangerous, creatures threatened to sue the ABC if it they showed the program - regretting, apparently, what they had said - says it all.

*The first woman, especially, was one screwed-up unit who'd obviously embraced Islam because the Assemblies of God — or heroin — didn't get her first.*

So true! It seems that certain personality types are attracted
to this kind of thing. I once debated with a Catholic fanatic,
about as bad as those two, who conceded that if he wasn't Catholic,
it would be some other kind of religion. He needed his fix to cope
with life, it seems.

Go to the US bible belt, its full of fanatics