Dear Proxy,

You brought up the topic of violence in
your opening post. I merely tried to
answer your question, "Does anybody
think this is a serious issue to
concern Australia?"

I have a problem with your generalisation
and sweeping statements concerning Muslims.

Muslims in Australia are marked by their
ethnic diversity. Muslim migration to
Australia was, and is, from a variety of
nation states themselves possessing distinct
cultural and ethnic groups. Migrants coming
to Australia bring not only their religious
faith, but also their cultural identities
with them and quite often these cultural
identities figure as strongly as their religious
identity. Muslims also vary in their degree of
commitment to Islam as well as their approaches
to it.

There are further differences in the level of
integration into Australian society, particularly
among the second and third generation Muslims.
Complicating all this is also the existence of
an increasing number of converts to Islam
from European backgrounds who were born and grew
up in Australia.

Therefore not all Muslims share the same view on
all issues, and often there is no one standard
"Islamic" view on many of the problems and issues
Muslims face in their daily lives.

I simply don't understand the assumptions
that you're making with this thread - it seems to
me that it is based at the very least on ignorance
and at worst on extreme bias.

Hmm, a whole pile of posts, links to Wikipedia a slew of Bible references (thanks AlGore) but no link to the Quilliam document itself?

Well, here it is http://www.scribd.com/doc/34834977/Secret-Quilliam-Memo-to-government.

Belly

Quite frankly, Australia has more to be concerned about with George Pell and cronies if Abbott wins the upcoming Federal election. There are a many more fundamentalist Christians in Australia than there are Muslims of any degree of fundamentalism.

If ever we needed separation of church and state irrefutably enshrined in our constitution it is now.

Absolutely Severin!
I despair that Australians would even consider the bumbling, poorly spoken, failed Catholic priest, Tony Abbott as a possible Prime Minister!

I am amazed he had not joined the 'Family First' party in the first place, as they have very similar ideals. Maybe he thought he had more chance of the top job if he joined the coalition?

I am not concerned about any so-called Islamic Jihad in Australia.
Australians are far too intelligent to let such an obviously dangerous group as the Muslim extremists get a stronghold here.

I am far more concerned about our society having to go back to the 'good-old-days' when Christian fundamentalist ideas prevailed much more. Tony Abbott would have been quite at home as a politician back in the 1950's, not now.

Dear Severin and Suze,

Ditto from me as well.

For most Muslims in Australia, the debate on an
Islamic state with Islamic law, is irrelevant.
First, Muslims are
a small minority and even if they wanted they
couldn't have what's called an Islamic state with
Islamic law here.
Secondly, the Australian state allows total
freedom for Muslims to practice their religion
and therefore there's no need for an alternative
"state" or system. From their point of view,
Muslims in Australia can function perfectly well
as Muslims and Australians without an Islamic
state.

I wonder though if Proxy even knows what the trends
are within Australian Islam, and how many trends of
thought exist and the differences between them?

Foxy
<< it seems to me that (your thread is) based at the very least on ignorance
and at worst on extreme bias.>>
I would suggest to you that former Islamists Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz have a greater understanding of Islam than yourself.
I am merely bringing to light their analysis of the situation.
You, however, are trying to impose your post-modern concept of viewpoint equivalence to imply that “Islamic diversity” somehow nullifies Islamic doctrine.
From an Islamic point of view, the Koran is the perfect and unchangeable word of Allah revealed to Mohammed.
A Muslim who denies the supremacy of Shariah Law over Australian law is by definition not a Muslim.
The implication behind your assertion that “…many trends of thought exist (with) differences between them” is that we need not fear that Muslims in Australia want to impose Sharia here.
Why should the Australian experience be any different from the UK’s, where Shariah Law is already an inescapable, state-sanctioned reality?
How is it that you claim to know more about Islam than former Islamists Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz?
Yet you describe my views as being either ignorant or biased.
Are Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz Islamophobes?
What evidence do you bring to the debate to refute their assertions, apart from the notion of “Islamic diversity” which is so obviously merely an extension of your own worldview?
BTW, what are the "the trends...within Australian Islam" and how are they supported by Islamic doctrine?