csteel: Dear Jayb, Good to see you. What link do you have for us today?

& If I did post a link csteely, would you look at it. NO.

csteel: Talk to me about banning all rabid evangalisers, including Christians and we can have a conversation.

Now that's something I agree with, but does that include your rabid Islamic Imrams too. No, I thought not. I'm all for banning all radicals of any description. Well, banning? fortunately, in this country, unlike the places you admire & aspire Australia to become, we're allowed free speech here..

I think I've seen most of the posts on the thread, I'm a little disappointed that the thread has not touched on some of the other issues raised by the opening post. It seems to have bogged down into and Islam to and fro from the usual camps.

I was more bothered by the implications of holding to account those deemed to be spreading poison.

A cure that in my view is worse than the poison.
Not sure how neatly I can summarise my thinking on that but I'll have a go.
- Concerns about who gets to decide what is poison. Is it poison to suggest that the earth is round, that all things don't revolve around it? Both claims have been considered poison in the past. Who is spreading the poison around ACC (anthropic climate change), those who believe the models and those who either reject them or have serious doubts? Action or inaction could have very serious consequences depending on who is right. Roll on with any contentious issue where views have changed over time and you should see the point.
- I don't think it generally helps to suppress dissenting views, I'd rather have them out in the open where they can be challenged and rebutted.
- I think we can learn from dissenting voices at times even if their analysis of risk or solution turns out to be wrong. Sometimes there is enough truth there that we should be questioning our assumptions to find better answers.
- I don't want our country to be one where only government approved views are allowed to be expressed. I'd much rather have the rude and offensive carry on than have the thoughtful but contentious silenced.

R0bert

So Mr Steele's latest observation boils down to "Christian fundamentialists are nastier than Muslims". That may or may not be so, but it is entirely irrelevant.
We see again the "moral equivalence" logical fallacy reflex of the left. The fact is he started the discussion which was about a leaflet threatening vengeance on Muslims. So we are talking about Islam here, not Christian fundamentalism, which I agree is also misguided.

Hello there POIROT...

I was for once, right. Not a resounding feature of my life thusfar ?
I've always believed you have a real potency within your rhetoric, it's just a shame we don't have the opportunity of seeing it as often as we should !

Between you and LEXI, you're both a powerful influence on the Forum I reckon ? Keeping the lid on us thoughtless males, with our arbitrary bursts of testosterone ! A skill that can only manifest itself with people who possess a keen intellect. Thank you POIROT, thank you very much.

Hello there BANJO...

I've been following your threads with considerable interest, and I must say how relieved I am to observe that you're not in reality, amongst the misanthropic radicals of the left ! And I really appreciate your kind sentiments too, thank you very much. By the way, a small wager, that you or someone close to you can play ?

May I ask then, how does it feel to be pragmatic BANJO ? To be conventional ? To wish that our great country, our culture, our lifestyle, and the Aussie people, are to remain unyieldingly within our own (Australian) grasp ? Then, beware, you may well be perilously close to being identified as having a 'racial' predisposition, similar to me ?

Your see BANJO, I'm casually observing the unintelligible and incoherent mutterings, of that great plenipotentiary for 'An Islamic Australia',...CSTEELE ! Still, he does retain the right to articulate his own brand of irrationality, that is of course, until we're all under the intolerable, IRON grip, of Sharia Law.

csteele,
So are you claiming that All media reports of Islamic problems in UK and European countries are wrong or exaggerrated. If you believe that you will believe anything. There have been many, many credible reports coming from europe all indicating the same thing.

Also are those claims made by Islam representatives about wanting polygamy, sharia law, rape is the fault of the victim, etc. all false.

Reckon the girls in the sixty gang rapes in s/w Sydney, in 2000, all feel enriched by multiculturalism. The cops only caught a few.

The question still needs to be answered as to why a muslim would come to live in a country that is completely at odds with his social standards and culture.

Dear R0bert,

A fair question. Is the cure worse than the poison?

Firstly please understand where I am coming from. It is not the fact that this lad posted what he did that is so offensive to me. He would be unlikely to know any Muslims personally so all of this hatred has come to him via media that is determined to take minor incidents in other countries and ramp them up into dire warnings for his consumption.

I too would rather see his take out in the open.

When I talk about holding people to account I mean exposing the views and hypocrisy of the poison peddlers for what they often are, abhorrent and vile hate-mongering of exactly the type they accuse others of.

Yet even with a ratio in their favour of around 5:1 on a thread like this there are cries of 'he wants to shut us up and deny us our free speech'.

Yet I have not called for any sanctions based around racial or religious vilification laws.

However here is an interesting exercise we might conduct with this group of self styled 'defenders of free speech'. Ask how many support sanctions against the self appointed Muslim cleric Sheik Haron and his off-sider who sent the letters to the families of our soldiers killed in combat. I certainly do although the ultimate penalties here of a couple of decades in prison are in my opinion vastly excessive.

The Westborough Baptist Church in the US is far more aggressive in their attack on the families of the slain lining the route of funeral processions with their hateful messages. Yet while many Americans are utterly disgusted by the group they are allowed, with some restrictions, to continue their protests.

That is a commitment to free speech which in one sense I admire, but its absolutism is not something I'm sure I want for my country.

So let us see who from this bunch are true to their claimed ethos and are prepared to stand up for the 'Sheik's' right to free speech and the right to offend.