Foxy the great thing about a democracy is that you do not have to be outstanding to be a citizen. A point exampled when U.S. Mafia boss Frank Costello was questioned by a senate committee. Asked what he had contributed to the community since he had immigrated to the U.S. He answered without hesitation "I paid my taxes". Thats all we have to do.
The Italian and the Greeks have contributed liberally as well, but there is no need to advertise the fact so as to give them credibility in regard to being good citizens.

What is the point to the thread, that not all Muslims are.....are what?
We brought them from historically troubled lands with the most alien and Dark Age customs that you could find as an opposite to the status quo and supplant it into a first world culture and the expectation was what? Harmony, get real, we have a sub culture that has grown to seventeen times it original size in thirty years. The Muslims have and will further change the character and face of Australia, as did the white settlers change the destiny of the Aboriginal peoples. All communities do good and all communities do bad, and the worst thing a community could do is to become a society within a society. We seem to have all that going on here, hence the need for the pro Muslim propaganda.

[Deleted.]

Using Foxy's logic..

a drug lord who

-Builds hospitals
-Builds schools
-Builds soccer pitches
-Builds churches
(with blood and drug money)

all for the poor of Medayin....(as Pablo Escobar did)

shows that "not all drug lords are bad" :)

But all drug lords are still "drug lords".

Not all COLUMBIANS are drug lords though...

The idea that a class of people are automatically aligned with either the worst or best of them is plain silly Foxy.. plain silly.

Dear Proxy and Al,

Kindly stick to the title of this
thread. If you are unable to do that,
find yourself another thread.

Al and Proxy
Please tell me how it is an inept analogy. You are quite quick off the mark in pointing out atrocities committed by Muslims but quite blinkered to those committed by other faiths.

The abuse of children by some Christian missionaries occurred despite the teachings of the Bible. That is why religion is a furphy, people will still make up their own minds about how they behave regardless of what they purport to be their moral or values framework.

We could be here forever if we cherry picked the Bible and Koran to pieces to prove a point. Not to repeat old arguments but they are valid: what of the Crusades and the various Inquisitions where the punishing and killing of heretics or the drowning of 'witches' was sanctioned by God. What about where God asks Abraham to kill his son to prove his love. Would you kill your child if you believed God asked it? What sort of God would ask this? Bush said God told him to invade Iraq.

Thankfully most of us don't judge all Christians on the basis of a text written centuries ago.

One child abuser does not represent Christianity, one terrorist does not represent Islam.

You provide an example of the criminal actions of two cameleers and hold that up to be validation for your anti-Islamic views. I merely pointed out a similar atrocious behaviour carried out by some Christians. I don't need to find a passage in the Bible that promotes child abuse, the sad fact is it happened. I don't need to find a passage in the Koran that promotes killing infidels, the fact is the vast majority of Muslims are not here in Australia killing infidels.

Note I said "some" Christians. The difference is you tar all Muslims with the same brush without allowing for individual responsibility which when is all said and done is what it all comes down to.

A very reasoned piece here outlining much of the historical context:

http://www.muslimaccess.com/articles/jihad/kill_the_infidels.asp

As I've stated in my opening post,
Australian Muslims have made a significant
contribution to Australian society for
over the past 150 years. In the 16th and
17th centuries, for example, Macassan Merchants
from Indonesia traded harmoniously with
Indigenous Australians in Northern Australia.
Afghan cameleers, pearl divers from SE Asia,
Bosnian and Kosovar workers on the Snowy Mountain
Scheme, were among the early Muslim workers who
helped build Australia. Muslims have contributed
to the economic and physical infrastructure of
Australia.

Australian Muslims come from around 70 diverse
cultural backgrounds and traditions. And would
prefer to be identified simply as "Australians."

Not all Australian Muslim women wear the hijab.

Australian Muslims do not support terrorism.

These are facts that need to be remembered.
Just as we don't make assumptions about all
Italians having mafia connections. Or all
Columbians being drug-lords, and so forth.