Boazy: "anonymity is important whan one is dealing with the issue of Islam"

It depends how you "deal" with it. I think you abuse anonymity to foster hatred of Islam and hence Muslims - not to mention anybody else who doesn't subscribe to your peculiar worldview. At any rate, don't kid yourself that you're really anonymous when you post in forums like this: if anybody really took you seriously enough to want to retaliate you wouldn't be very hard to locate.

"The case was referred to the AFP and this resulted in some very important and refreshing invterviews."

Nice to see the AFP keeping tabs on religious extremists like you.

"So, there is nothing 'cowardly' about me... in regard to saying controversial things and 'being there' to back them up."

I disagree.

I always use my real name, I feel shame to use a fake name in a democratic environment. If our system respect and protect our right to express our opinion, our thoughts, our dreams why do we use fake name? I do not say that I am enough mature and for this reason I write with my real name but I say that I am enough honest and I do not like to hurt any one and of cause I am full responsible for what I am writing. In a democratic system people must be enough brave to express their view publicly and enough mature to undertake fully their responsibilities.
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

"If our system respect and protect our right to express our opinion, our thoughts, our dreams why do we use fake name? "

In a lot of ways our system does do this but not completely. We still have places where individuals can be got at for speaking out on issues that concern them.

I'd not like to end up on a list of C$A critics. As a "client" of the organisation the power difference between them and myself is enormous.

I've found it important to talk about my own experiences of the family law system and as a male recepient of DV but if I'm identified by name and post that stuff my former wifes privacy would be breached. Not something I want to do to her or to my son.

I've no control or knowledge of who reads posts on this site. Some have given me the impression that they would take disagreement on the site outside the site if given the opportunity.

I've got no knowledge of how potential future employers/interviewers might react to my views and would rather not have a simple web search expose my views on such a wide range of topics and across a number of years to people who should not take those views into consideration. I gather searching the web to look for info on potential employees is becoming popular in some quarters.

I'll keep my alias and post in a manner that I consider responsible but with the knowledge that the chances of my views being used to harm me in the real world are fairly small.

If my views are worth less because there is not a real name attached then so be it.

R0bert

I wrote hard articles against CIA or against ASIO etc. In a democratic system everything is under critique and really I do not worry or expect from them any kind of retaliation. I think our critique help them to improve their performance, their image. The persons who afraid to express their view publicly, they do not trust and respect our system enough and of cause are not ready to fight openly against the bad sides of our system.
I am bastard migrant with poor English low income enough old and if I lose my job very difficult to find an other one but I have made critiques even for my work place and publicly of cause. When you afraid to express your opinion publicly with your name you sent the message that you are a scary person and ready to run, instead to fight. When you use your real name then they know that you are ready to fight for your ideas and they have to think about the consequences of this fight.
One time an interior minister ordered me to leave a country where I was working, last days he accepted discussion with me about my deportation. I answer to him publicly, --NO DISCUSSION ON MY RIGHTS, YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND ME-- My deportation canceled. Do not show weakness. Be proud, brave, active citizen. If you are Muslim be carefull.
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

Agree totally with Boaz on the issue of anonymity & freedom of speech. And I’m an out & out atheist. What is the point of freedom of speech? Isn’t it to guage what people really think? The only true way to find out what people really think is to get their private opinion, not their public opinion. The only way to guarantee that we get their private opinion is by allowing them to give their ideas anonymously – which is why humans invented secret ballot – although this didn’t stop voters being blown up on the way to the polls by extremists in Iraq.

Too many times in history (& the present) have people been persecuted for their beliefs & ideas. It’s bad enough that many are forced to post anonymously ( even when they write to newspapers with name & address, non-PC letters rarely get published anyhow). Taking away that privacy would be in line with fascism (NewSpeak = PC) & the persecution would follow.

Eg.the term “racist” is liberally applied on OLO to those who don’t toe the PC line on issues surrounding practices or beliefs which involve large numbers of non-whites. It is about the 2nd most character-assassinating term after paedophile. Rarely does the accuser provide any evidence to support their claim. Who would be willing to suffer such character assassination? Any sensible discussion is virtually impossible in practice for many in a public forum outside the inet. The labellers know this & that’s why they hurl the labels. And for those who work in a left leaning world, it’s best to keep stumm & endure the PC line ad nauseum. As Boaz says, “Freedom of speech must also include 'safety' in speech.” (spot on) which includes not just physical safety but also career/promotion protection.

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. ~Noam Chomsky

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too. ~Voltaire

All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. ~George Bernard Shaw

contd:

"The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think what we like and say what we think." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." ~ George Orwell

"Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself." ~ Salman Rushdie

"To speak his thoughts is every freeman's right, in peace and war, in council and in fight." ~ Homer

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties." ~ John Milton

“Without Fredom of thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of speech” ~ Benjamin Franklin

"The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race….If the opinion is right, (we) are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, (we) lose….the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error." ~John Stuart Mill

Less famous but relevant:

"Censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretense, has always been and always be the last resort of the boob and the bigot." ~ Eugene Gladstone O'Neill

My favourite:

"To choose a good book, look in an inquisitor’s prohibited list." ~John Aikin

A warning:

"REVOLUTION, n. A bursting of the boilers which usually takes place when the safety valve of public discussion is closed." ~ Ambrose Bierce

"He who now talks about the ''freedom of the press'' goes backward, and halts our headlong course towards Socialism." ~ Lenin

"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings." ~Heinrich Heine

And finally a special thanks to OLO:

"Freedom to speak... can be maintained only by promoting debate." ~ Walter Lipman