Good points Wobbles.. and I think more meaningful than you realize.

Here is how I see it. If it was just tolerance.. that would be ok. But the problem comes when well meaning (?) public servants seem to take it upon themselves to go further. (such as the breast feeding woman)
It becomes a problem when our existing culture becomes subservient to alien cultures. That is where I draw the line. (hence the thread)

There was some article in the news a few days back, where some Afghan man was killed I think.. and his wife, who has been here FIFTEEN YEARS could not speak english.

Now.. we don't expect our emegency services to have a translator for every foreign language in Australia available for every call out....do we ? Can you imagine where that could lead ? I'll guarantee not a soul in Australia could speak my wifes languages (Except her 2 sisters and probably 4 others) so why should she be disadvantaged (if she could not speak english) by the lack of an appropriate translator ?

UNITY..not DIVERSITY.
My major point is that rather than funding 'multi' cultural things, all our policies and funding should be in the direction of building cultural and racial bridges, bringing together rather than erecting higher and higher fences between people groups.
Instead of allocating funds for 'ethnic cultural festivals' We should allocate them for 'interracial and intercultural' events.
This could be focused. Croat and Serb communities could obtain benefits for demonstrating a 'cultural harmony day' which has as its focus "We are all Australians".... maybe the Tennis would be good venue :)
Greek and Macedonian communities could do a 'Alexander was not Aussie, but we all are' day :) wooooo now that would cause a fuss.

BREAKDOWN BARRIERS... don't RE-INFORCE THEM.

HILALY FOR PRESIDENT ?

I used to read Jungle Doctor stories to my children. One of them was called 'Big Leapords bite'. It was set in Africa, and this child had discovered an abandoned leapord cub. He brought it home and started to nurture it. When people disovered it they berated him "Boy.. little leapords grow into BIG leapords and big leapords kill".
The story goes on with the stubborn child, the increasingly worried villagers and the defensive parents. Finally of course the Leapord reaches full size, gets a taste of blood and kills and eats the boys father. Moral.. little Leapords grow into BIG Leapords and big Leapords kill.

And now would be Premier Hilaly is BITING Labor in the bum, and kicking Australia in the face. Contesting directly against Iemma in Lakemba and endorsing 2 other "Muslim" candidates in Bankstown and Auburn. Interesting that he is endorsing 'Muslim' candidates. One can only assume he is seeking to advance the interests of "Muslims" against the interests of non Muslims.

So.. another useful contribution to the Multicultural stupidity we have been cursed with.

This videos shows the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlDztjPzvSM

1/ Map of Australia with bullet holes in it, and a Lebanese flag at a beach, and over the Sydney area of the map.
2/ Burning the Australian flag.

The problem is not multi culturism we already are a multi cultured country.
Lets test the overlords of this site and free speach, the problem is biggots within the Muslim comunity.
And mostly from the Lebanese comunity at that, a view you just can not get away from most Australians agree with.
Hope exists in time [ is this the goverments plan] break down in the exsteme views will come from within the comunity its self.
And after the next act of hate such as 9/11 both comunitys ours and the Muslim one will confront this question .
Can we live together?
In my view its not worth the effort if only my side trys.
And if just once a Muslim saying it is wrong does not end that speach saying that we play some part in it?ah it will not happen.

Boaz, like it or not, you are fomenting racial tension.

You are exacerbating the "us and them" mentality with your highly selective news bites - a kind of localised concatenation of Fox News, Oswald Mosley and Tele-evangelism. You rely increasingly upon informal, pervasive, but ultimately infinitely corruptible media such as You-Tube to support your ever more outlandish accusations against your religious enemies.

Yet despite this, you continue to regard your actions as honest, reasonable, patriotic and humanitarian.

Please, take a long, hard and honest look at yourself, your actions and your motivation. Begin to realize that even though you may see your actions as necessary, and your mission to expose the evils of religions other than your own as being divinely guided, they appear to others as the meanderings of a cultural and religious xenophobe.

Your campaign of "ONE NATION,ONE RACE, ONE CULTURE" (your capitals, I remind you) echoes that of "Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Führer", complete with its own internal justification of targetting a group that is "not like us".

You said a little while ago "But apart from Islam, I am vigorously promoting cultural and racial unity." Can you honestly not see the absolute parallel between what you are saying here about Muslims, and what the Third Reich were saying about Jews? You really, honestly, deep-down-in-your-heart cannot see it?

But sadly, I suspect you can, but either you simply don't care or you embrace the comparison... would I be right?

And you still have not commented on my last offering:

"Finally, may I gently remind you of one of Mosley's more infamous utterings:

"We will not tolerate within the State a minority organized against the interests of the State. Jews must either put the interests of Britain before the interests of Jewry or they will be deported from Britain."

Substitute the words "Muslims", "Islam" and "Australia" for "Jews", "Jewry" and "Britain" in the above statement, and you have Boaz-ism, complete and unadorned.

Does this ring any bells Boaz? Or do you see Mosley as a vastly misunderstood person, with everyone's best interests at heart?"

Lekh b'shalom

I usually resist responding to Boazy directly after Pericles has, to avoid a kind of 'tag-team' effect. However, in this instance suffice it to say that Pericles' comment above is so close to my own analysis of Boazy's pernicious activities that I simply have to chime in with hearty agreement.

Have a good look at yourself, Boazy. Have you ever taken Pericles' advice and read about Mosely? If you had, you - what with your legendary capacity for textual analysis and all - must have noticed some disturbing parallels between Moseley's ideology and your own?

Of course, if you haven't you're just being your good old intellectually and morally dishonest self, eh?

With respect to Boazy's somewhat tabloid attention to the facts of a story, it seems decidedly unlikely that Hilaly will stand for election personally. Mind you, at another blog [http://larvatusprodeo.net/2007/01/21/the-honourable-mufti-for-lakemba/#comments] someone wondered whether if he does, would it be for the Festival of Light?

Sounds silly at first, but when you think about it, Hilaly and Fred Nile have more in common with each other than either has with your typical Aussie :)